220-1101 Practice Exam 2 — 20 Questions

Question 1

A user connects a laptop to a hotel's wired Ethernet port. The laptop obtains an IP address of 169.254.15.32 and cannot access the internet. Other guests' laptops on the same hotel network work without issue. The technician has verified that the laptop's network adapter is enabled, the driver is up to date, and that the Ethernet cable is securely connected. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the issue?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

The switch port is configured with MAC address filtering. The IP address 169.254.15.32 is an Automatic Private IP Addressing (APIPA) address, assigned when a DHCP server is not reached. Since other guests' laptops work fine, the hotel's DHCP server is operational, ruling out a server-side issue. MAC address filtering on the switch port would block the laptop's DHCP request, causing it to fail to obtain a valid IP and fall back to APIPA, while other devices with allowed MAC addresses work normally.

Answer

The hotel's DHCP server is down

Answer

The DNS server address is unreachable

Answer

The Ethernet cable is faulty

Question 2

A company wants to migrate its on-premises email system to the cloud. They require a solution where the cloud provider manages the email servers, software updates, security patches, and storage infrastructure, while the company retains control over user accounts, mailbox policies, and email content. Which cloud service model BEST fits these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Software as a Service (SaaS). Software as a Service (SaaS) delivers a complete, managed application to end users. In this scenario, the cloud provider handles all underlying infrastructure, including email servers, software updates, security patches, and storage, while the customer retains administrative control over user accounts, mailbox policies, and email content. This matches the definition of SaaS, where the provider manages the entire application stack and the customer only manages application-level settings.

Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Answer

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Answer

Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Question 3

A user wants to synchronize their smartphone's contacts and calendar with their company's Microsoft Exchange server. Which protocol is specifically designed to provide this synchronization?

Accepted Answer

Exchange ActiveSync. Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) is a Microsoft protocol specifically designed to synchronize email, contacts, calendar, tasks, and notes between mobile devices and an Exchange server. It uses HTTP(S) and supports push synchronization, remote wipe, and policy enforcement, making it the correct choice for syncing contacts and calendar with a company's Exchange environment.

Answer

IMAP

Answer

POP3

Answer

SMTP

Question 4

After a RAM upgrade, a PC fails to boot and emits memory beep codes. The technician confirms the modules are the correct generation. What is the best next step?

Accepted Answer

Reseat the RAM and test one module at a time in the recommended slot. Memory beep codes indicate a RAM-related issue, and the most common cause after an upgrade is improper seating or a faulty module. Reseating the RAM and testing one module at a time in the recommended slot (usually slot A2 or DIMM2 per motherboard manual) isolates the problem, ensuring each stick is properly installed and functional before adding more.

Answer

Replace the power button

Answer

Clear all browser cache

Answer

Disable DHCP

Question 5

A company runs a latency-sensitive application on a local server. To handle occasional traffic spikes, the company needs to expand compute resources temporarily without moving the entire application to the cloud. The application runs on a single operating system instance and cannot be easily containerized. Which of the following cloud deployment models BEST allows the company to meet this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Hybrid cloud. A hybrid cloud model allows the company to keep the latency-sensitive application on a local private cloud or on-premises server while temporarily bursting compute resources to a public cloud during traffic spikes. This is achieved through cloud bursting, where additional virtual machines or instances are provisioned in the public cloud and connected to the on-premises environment, without requiring the entire application to be migrated or containerized. The application runs on a single OS instance, so extending resources via hybrid cloud avoids the need for re-architecture while handling peak loads.

Answer

Community cloud

Answer

Public cloud

Answer

Private cloud

Question 6

Drag and drop the steps for setting up a RAID 1 (mirroring) array in a Windows server into the correct order.

Accepted Answer

Initialize disks, then create mirrored volume, then format the volume, then verify.. Initialize disks first, then create mirrored volume, select disks, format, and verify.

Answer

Create mirrored volume, then initialize disks, then format the volume, then verify.

Answer

Initialize disks, then format the volume, then create mirrored volume, then verify.

Answer

Initialize disks, then create mirrored volume, then verify, then format the volume.

Question 7

A technician is troubleshooting a desktop PC that freezes for several seconds during disk-intensive operations, such as transferring large files. The technician has already replaced the hard drive with an SSD, tested the RAM with a memory diagnostic tool (no errors), and updated the chipset drivers. The issue still occurs. Which of the following is the MOST likely remaining cause of the freezes?

Accepted Answer

A faulty SATA cable. A faulty SATA cable can cause intermittent connectivity issues that manifest as system freezes during disk-intensive operations. Even after replacing the hard drive with an SSD and verifying RAM and drivers, a degraded or loose SATA cable can introduce data transfer errors or link drops, forcing the system to retry commands and causing pauses. This is the most likely remaining cause because the cable is the only component in the data path not yet replaced or tested.

Answer

Overheating CPU

Answer

Incompatible RAM speed

Answer

Outdated network drivers

Question 8

A company replaces an unmanaged network switch with a new managed switch in a small office. After reconnecting all devices, some workstations can access the internet, but others cannot. The workstations that cannot access the internet are all connected to ports 1-8 of the new switch, while workstations on ports 9-16 work normally. The router is connected to port 24. The technician checks the switch configuration and finds that all ports are in the default VLAN 1, but ports 1-8 have been accidentally reassigned to VLAN 2. Which of the following is the MOST likely reason the workstations on ports 1-8 cannot access the internet?

Accepted Answer

The workstations on ports 1-8 are on a different VLAN than the router, preventing them from reaching the default gateway.. The router is connected to port 24, which remains in the default VLAN 1. Workstations on ports 1-8 have been reassigned to VLAN 2. Since VLANs create separate broadcast domains, devices in VLAN 2 cannot communicate with the router's interface in VLAN 1 unless a Layer 3 device (like a router or Layer 3 switch) routes between the VLANs. Without inter-VLAN routing configured, the workstations in VLAN 2 cannot reach their default gateway (the router), and thus cannot access the internet.

Answer

The switch needs to be power cycled to apply the VLAN configuration changes.

Answer

The workstations on ports 1-8 have incorrect subnet masks configured.

Answer

The switch ports are not configured as trunk ports for the router connection.

Question 9

A user brings in an iPhone that will not turn on. The technician has verified that the charging cable and power adapter work correctly by testing them with another iPhone. The technician attempts a force restart by pressing and holding the Side and Volume Down buttons, but the device remains unresponsive. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the issue?

Accepted Answer

Battery is completely discharged. The iPhone remains unresponsive even after a force restart, but the charging cable and adapter work with another device. This indicates the battery is completely discharged below the threshold required to initiate charging or power-on. Lithium-ion batteries have a protection circuit that can enter deep discharge mode, requiring a period of charging before the device will respond to any button presses.

Answer

Faulty power button

Answer

Water damage

Answer

Logic board failure

Question 10

A technician installs a new PoE security camera in an office. The camera is connected to a wall jack that runs to a PoE-enabled switch. The camera does not power on. The technician tests the cable with a cable tester and it passes. The switch port has a solid link light. The technician connects a known-working laptop to the same wall jack, and the laptop gets an IP address and can access the network. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of this issue?

Accepted Answer

The camera requires a higher PoE standard than the switch provides.. The camera does not power on despite the cable passing a continuity test, the switch port showing a link light, and a known-working laptop successfully obtaining an IP address through the same wall jack. This indicates that the physical layer and basic network connectivity are functional, but the PoE power delivery is insufficient. The most likely cause is that the camera requires a higher PoE standard (e.g., PoE+ 802.3at, which provides up to 30W) than the switch provides (e.g., standard PoE 802.3af, which provides up to 15.4W), so the camera cannot draw enough power to boot.

Answer

The cable is too long for PoE to function correctly.

Answer

The switch port does not have PoE enabled.

Answer

The camera has an IP address conflict with another device on the network.

Question 11

A user reports that their smartphone's touch screen stopped working after the phone was briefly submerged in water. The technician dried the device thoroughly, then replaced the screen assembly (including the digitizer) with a known-good part. After reassembly, the touch screen is still completely unresponsive. The display works correctly, and the phone powers on and charges normally. Which of the following components should the technician check next?

Accepted Answer

The motherboard's touch screen controller IC. Water damage can short or corrode the touch screen controller IC on the motherboard, which processes signals from the digitizer. Since the display and other functions work, the issue is isolated to the touch input path, and replacing the screen assembly (including the digitizer) did not resolve it, pointing to a damaged controller IC rather than the peripheral components.

Answer

The battery

Answer

The charging port

Answer

The SIM card slot

Question 12

A technician is building a new desktop computer with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X CPU and a B450 chipset motherboard. The system powers on, case fans spin, and the CPU fan spins, but there is no display output and no POST beeps. The motherboard's CPU debug LED remains lit. The technician has already reseated the CPU (no bent pins), verified the RAM is compatible and seated correctly, and tested the power supply with a multimeter (voltages within spec). Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The B450 motherboard requires a BIOS update to be compatible with the Ryzen 5 5600X.. The Ryzen 5 5600X is based on the Zen 3 architecture, while B450 motherboards were originally designed for Zen+ and Zen 2 CPUs. Without a BIOS update that includes AGESA firmware supporting Vermeer (Zen 3), the motherboard cannot initialize the CPU, causing the CPU debug LED to stay lit and preventing POST. The technician has already verified power, RAM, and CPU seating, making an incompatible BIOS the most likely cause.

Answer

The CPU is not receiving sufficient voltage from the power supply.

Answer

The CPU is defective and needs to be replaced.

Answer

The RAM is not installed in the correct slots for dual-channel memory.

Question 13

A company hosts a critical web application on a public cloud IaaS platform. The application runs on virtual machines in a single region. The company wants to ensure that the application remains available even if the entire cloud region experiences an outage. They plan to deploy an identical infrastructure in a second region and configure automatic traffic failover. No manual intervention should be required after the failover. Which of the following cloud concepts BEST describes this architecture?

Accepted Answer

High availability. This architecture is best described as high availability because it uses redundant infrastructure in a second region with automatic traffic failover to ensure the application remains accessible during a regional outage. High availability focuses on minimizing downtime by eliminating single points of failure, and the requirement for no manual intervention aligns with an active-passive or active-active HA design using DNS-based or load balancer failover mechanisms.

Answer

Disaster recovery

Answer

Fault tolerance

Answer

Elasticity

Question 14

A network laser printer is printing pages with garbled characters and random symbols. The technician prints a test page from the printer's control panel, which prints correctly. The technician then prints from a different computer on the same network, and the printout is also garbled. The printer driver has been reinstalled. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Change the printer's emulation mode. The printer prints correctly from its own test page but produces garbled output from multiple network computers, indicating the issue is with how the print data is interpreted. Changing the printer's emulation mode (e.g., from PCL to PostScript or vice versa) resolves mismatches between the driver's page description language and the printer's interpreter, which is a common cause of garbled characters when the driver reinstall hasn't fixed the problem.

Answer

Replace the network cable

Answer

Update the printer firmware

Answer

Replace the imaging drum

Question 15

A technician is installing a new CPU on a compatible motherboard. After placing the CPU in the socket, the technician installs the heatsink and fan, connects the fan header to the motherboard, and powers on the system. The system powers on (fans spin, LEDs light) but immediately shuts down after about 3 seconds. Which of the following should the technician check FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Check if the CPU power connector (4/8-pin) is connected to the motherboard. The immediate shutdown after power-on indicates a power delivery issue, most commonly the CPU power connector (4/8-pin EPS12V) not being connected. Without this connector, the CPU receives no power, causing the system to start and then shut down as the motherboard detects the fault. This is the first thing to check because it is a simple, common oversight during CPU installation.

Answer

Check the PSU voltage output with a multimeter

Answer

Check if thermal paste was applied to the CPU

Answer

Check if the RAM is properly seated

Question 16

A technician is troubleshooting a laser printer that produces pages with a faint, blurry image on one side of the page (right edge). The problem occurs on every print job and the print quality is otherwise normal. The technician has already replaced the toner cartridge and the imaging drum, but the issue persists. Which of the following printer components is the MOST likely cause of this problem?

Accepted Answer

Transfer roller. The transfer roller applies a positive charge to the paper to attract the negatively charged toner from the imaging drum. If the transfer roller is damaged, worn, or has uneven pressure on one side, it will fail to transfer toner uniformly across the page, causing a faint, blurry image on the affected edge. Since the toner cartridge and imaging drum have already been replaced, the transfer roller is the next most likely cause of this localized print defect.

Answer

Fuser assembly

Answer

Laser scanner

Answer

Pickup rollers

Question 17

A network technician is installing a new fiber optic link between two switches located in different buildings. The technician uses identical SFP modules on both ends and connects them with a single fiber patch cable. After powering on, the link lights on both switches remain off. The technician verifies the SFP modules are compatible with the switches and that the cable is not damaged. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Swap the transmit and receive connections at one end of the fiber cable. Fiber optic communication requires two separate strands: one for transmitting (TX) and one for receiving (RX). If a single fiber patch cable is used, it typically contains two fibers, but the connectors must be crossed at one end so that the TX of one switch connects to the RX of the other. Since the link lights are off despite compatible SFPs and an undamaged cable, the most likely issue is a polarity mismatch, where both ends are wired straight through (TX to TX, RX to RX), preventing the optical signal from being received.

Answer

Change the duplex settings on both switches to half-duplex

Answer

Update the firmware on both switches

Answer

Verify that the VLAN configuration matches on both ends

Question 18

A company subscribes to a cloud service that allows them to select a set amount of virtual CPU cores, RAM, and storage for their instances. They are billed monthly based on the total resources used, regardless of how many times they change the configuration. This billing model BEST represents which cloud computing characteristic?

Accepted Answer

Measured service. The billing model described charges based on the total resources (vCPU, RAM, storage) consumed over the month, regardless of configuration changes. This is the definition of measured service, where cloud resource usage is metered, monitored, and billed according to actual consumption. The key is that the cost is directly tied to the measured quantity of resources used, not to the frequency or method of provisioning.

Answer

On-demand self-service

Answer

Rapid elasticity

Answer

Resource pooling

Question 19

A technician is upgrading a workstation's CPU from an Intel Core i5-6500 (Skylake) to an Intel Core i7-7700 (Kaby Lake) on an LGA 1151 motherboard. The motherboard manufacturer's website lists the i7-7700 as compatible with BIOS version P2.10 or later. After installing the new CPU, the system powers on (fans spin, LEDs light) but displays a black screen with no POST beeps. The technician has already cleared the CMOS. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the issue?

Accepted Answer

The motherboard's BIOS version is too old to support the new CPU.. The Intel Core i7-7700 (Kaby Lake) requires a BIOS version P2.10 or later on this LGA 1151 motherboard. Since the system powers on but fails to POST with a black screen and no beeps, the most likely cause is that the current BIOS version predates P2.10, lacking the microcode needed to initialize the Kaby Lake CPU. Clearing CMOS does not update the BIOS, so the motherboard remains unable to communicate with the new processor.

Answer

The power supply unit is not providing enough wattage for the new CPU.

Answer

The new CPU is defective or was installed incorrectly.

Answer

The RAM modules are incompatible with the new CPU's memory controller.

Question 20

A user reports that their desktop computer intermittently loses network connectivity when the overhead fluorescent lights in the office are turned on. The link light on the network interface card (NIC) turns off during these events. The technician replaced the existing unshielded twisted pair (UTP) Cat5e cable with a shielded Cat6 cable, but the problem continues. Which of the following should the technician do NEXT to resolve the issue?

Accepted Answer

Move the Ethernet cable away from the fluorescent light fixtures. The problem is electromagnetic interference (EMI) from the fluorescent lights, which generates a strong magnetic field that induces noise in the Ethernet cable. Even with shielded Cat6 cable, the interference can still couple into the signal if the cable is routed too close to the light fixtures, especially if the shielding is not properly grounded. Moving the cable away from the fixtures physically separates the cable from the EMI source, which is the most direct and effective next step.

Answer

Replace the network switch

Answer

Replace the network interface card (NIC)

Answer

Check the grounding of the electrical system in the building