220-1101 Practice Test 3 — 30 Questions

Question 1

A user in a small office reports that their laptop cannot connect to the corporate Wi-Fi network. Other devices in the same area connect without issue. The laptop can connect to the internet when plugged into the wired Ethernet port. The technician checks the wireless adapter status and sees it is enabled and shows available networks, but the corporate SSID is not listed. Which of the following is the most likely cause?

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

Accepted Answer

The wireless network is configured for 5 GHz only, and the laptop only supports 2.4 GHz.. The corporate SSID is not listed on the laptop, but other devices connect fine, indicating the network exists and is reachable. If the network is configured for 5 GHz only and the laptop only supports 2.4 GHz, the laptop will not see the SSID because it cannot tune to the 5 GHz frequency band during passive or active scanning. This matches the symptom of a missing SSID while the adapter is otherwise functional.

Answer

The laptop's MAC address is not allowed on the wireless network.

Answer

The wireless router is not broadcasting the SSID.

Answer

The laptop's Wi-Fi antenna is disconnected inside the case.

Question 2

A user reports that their Android smartphone will not charge when connected to a USB-C cable. The user has tried multiple chargers and cables, all of which work fine with other devices. The phone's battery is nearly empty. The technician inspects the phone's USB-C port and sees no visible damage. Which of the following should the technician do FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Gently clean the USB-C port with a toothpick or non-conductive tool. The most common cause of a device not charging despite functional cables and chargers is debris or lint compacted inside the USB-C port. Gently cleaning with a non-conductive tool (like a toothpick or plastic pick) can remove the obstruction without damaging the delicate pins, restoring electrical contact. This is a quick, non-invasive first step before any hardware replacement.

Answer

Perform a factory reset on the phone

Answer

Replace the battery

Answer

Replace the USB-C charging port assembly

Question 3

A user reports that their Android smartphone's battery drains very quickly even when the phone is not being used. The technician checks the battery usage statistics and sees that the screen is consuming a high percentage of power, but the screen is off during most of the idle time. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of this issue?

Accepted Answer

A rogue app preventing the phone from sleeping. When the screen is off but still consuming high power in battery statistics, it indicates the device is not entering a proper deep sleep state. A rogue app can hold a partial wake lock (e.g., via Android's PowerManager.WakeLock API) preventing the CPU from suspending, causing the screen subsystem to remain active or the display to be falsely reported as the power consumer. This is the most likely cause because the battery drain occurs during idle periods with the screen physically off.

Answer

A faulty battery

Answer

The screen brightness set too high

Answer

Malware infected the phone

Question 4

A user's laptop powers on (fans spin, power LED on), but the built-in display remains black. The technician connects an external monitor to the laptop's video port, and the external monitor displays the desktop correctly. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The LCD panel or backlight has failed. The laptop powers on (fans spin, power LED on) but the built-in display remains black, while an external monitor connected to the video port works correctly. This indicates that the GPU and video driver are functional, as they are able to drive the external display. The most likely cause is a failure of the LCD panel itself or its backlight (e.g., a faulty LED backlight, inverter, or display cable), since the internal display is the only component not working.

Answer

The laptop's video driver is corrupt

Answer

The RAM is faulty

Answer

The battery is not charging

Question 5

A technician is troubleshooting a server that unexpectedly shut down. The server has redundant power supplies, and the building power is stable. The technician checks the BIOS event log and finds a thermal warning before shutdown. The server is in a rack with other servers, all within temperature range. Which of the following is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

Loose CPU heatsink. A loose CPU heatsink causes poor thermal transfer between the CPU and the heatsink, leading to localized overheating even when ambient temperatures are normal. The BIOS thermal warning followed by shutdown indicates the CPU exceeded its critical temperature threshold, triggering an automatic protection mechanism. Redundant power supplies and stable building power rule out power issues, and the other servers in the rack are within range, isolating the problem to the specific server's cooling hardware.

Answer

A failed power supply unit

Answer

Incompatible RAM

Answer

Hard drive failure

Question 6

A technician installs a new Gigabit Ethernet NIC in a workstation to replace a faulty onboard NIC. After installation, the technician connects the Ethernet cable from the switch to the new NIC. The link light on the new NIC is off. The technician swaps the cable with a known-good cable, but the light remains off. The new NIC is detected in Device Manager with no errors. The technician tries the new NIC in another workstation and it works fine. Which of the following should the technician do NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Check the switch port configuration for port security or error-disable state. Since the NIC works in another workstation and a known-good cable doesn't resolve the issue, the problem is isolated to the switch port. Port security violations or error-disable states (e.g., from spanning-tree BPDU guard, UDLD, or a duplex mismatch) can administratively shut down the port, turning off the link light. Checking the switch port configuration is the logical next step to identify and clear such a condition.

Answer

Replace the switch

Answer

Update the NIC driver to the latest version

Answer

Change the NIC's duplex setting in Windows

Question 7

A technician upgrades the RAM in a desktop computer from 4 GB to 8 GB by installing a new 8 GB stick. After installation, the system boots normally, but the operating system reports only 4 GB of RAM. The technician has reseated the RAM stick multiple times and verified it is fully inserted. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of this issue?

Accepted Answer

The operating system is 32-bit. A 32-bit operating system has a 4 GB memory address space limit due to the 32-bit address bus, which can only address 2^32 bytes (approximately 4 GB). Even if 8 GB of physical RAM is installed, the OS cannot map or use more than 4 GB, so it reports only 4 GB. This is a known limitation of 32-bit Windows editions, such as Windows 10 32-bit.

Answer

The new RAM stick is faulty

Answer

The motherboard BIOS has a setting limiting memory to 4 GB

Answer

The new RAM stick is not compatible with the motherboard

Question 8

A user reports that their laptop's touchpad is not working. The technician checks Device Manager and sees the touchpad is not listed. The function key (Fn + F7) that enables/disables the touchpad does not seem to respond. The technician has rebooted the laptop. Which of the following should the technician try NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Check BIOS settings for touchpad enable/disable. The touchpad not appearing in Device Manager and the Fn key not responding suggests the device is disabled at a lower level than the OS, such as in the BIOS/UEFI firmware. Checking BIOS settings is the correct next step because many laptops have a hardware-level enable/disable toggle for the touchpad that overrides OS and driver settings. This is a standard troubleshooting step before attempting driver updates or hardware replacement.

Answer

Update the touchpad driver via Windows Update

Answer

Replace the touchpad hardware

Answer

Run the System File Checker (sfc /scannow)

Question 9

A technician is troubleshooting a desktop computer that will not power on. The motherboard's standby power LED is lit, indicating that the power supply is receiving AC power. When the technician presses the front panel power button, nothing happens. The technician has already tested the power supply by jumping the green wire to a black wire on the 24-pin connector, and the power supply fan spins. Which of the following is the MOST likely faulty component?

Accepted Answer

Power button on the front panel. The standby power LED on the motherboard indicates that the power supply is receiving AC power and is providing +5VSB (standby voltage) to the motherboard. Since jumping the green wire (PS_ON#) to ground (black wire) causes the power supply fan to spin, the power supply itself is functional. The most likely fault is the front panel power button, as it completes the circuit between the motherboard's power switch header pins when pressed; if the button is defective (e.g., stuck open or broken), it will not send the low-voltage signal to the PWR_SW header, preventing the system from powering on.

Answer

Front panel header cable

Answer

Motherboard

Answer

CPU

Question 10

A company runs a web application on a public cloud platform. The application often experiences variable traffic, with usage spikes lasting only a few hours. The company wants to automatically increase the number of virtual machine instances when CPU utilization exceeds 70% and decrease them when utilization drops below 30%. Which characteristic of cloud computing does this capability BEST represent?

Accepted Answer

Rapid elasticity. The ability to automatically scale virtual machine instances up and down in response to CPU utilization thresholds (70% up, 30% down) is a direct example of rapid elasticity. This cloud characteristic allows resources to be provisioned and released elastically, often automatically, to match demand at any given time. The scenario describes a dynamic, automated scaling action, which is the core definition of rapid elasticity in cloud computing.

Answer

On-demand self-service

Answer

Resource pooling

Answer

Measured service

Question 11

A user reports that their laptop is connected to the office Wi-Fi and can browse the internet, but cannot access any shared folders on the network. Other laptops on the same Wi-Fi can access the shares without issue. The laptop received a valid IP address from DHCP. Which of the following should the technician check FIRST?

Accepted Answer

The network profile is set to Public. The network profile being set to Public applies Windows Firewall rules that block file and printer sharing (SMB traffic on ports 445, 139) by default. Since the user can browse the internet but cannot access shared folders, and other laptops work fine, the most likely cause is that the laptop's network profile is Public, which disables network discovery and file sharing. Changing it to Private or Domain profile resolves the issue without affecting internet connectivity.

Answer

The DNS server configuration

Answer

A faulty wireless network adapter

Answer

Duplicate IP address on the network

Question 12

A user reports that their desktop computer can connect to the local network and access shared folders, but cannot browse the internet. Other computers on the same network work fine. The technician checks the IP configuration and sees the computer has a valid IP address of 192.168.1.100 with a default gateway of 192.168.1.1. The computer can successfully ping 192.168.1.1 and 8.8.8.8, but cannot ping 'google.com'. Which of the following should the technician check FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Verify that the DNS server address is configured correctly on the workstation.. The computer can ping 8.8.8.8 (a public IP address) but cannot ping 'google.com' (a domain name). This indicates that IP connectivity to the internet is working, but name resolution is failing. The most likely cause is a misconfigured or unreachable DNS server. The technician should first verify the DNS server address in the workstation's IP configuration, as this is the quickest and most direct step to resolve the symptom.

Answer

Check the proxy settings in the web browser.

Answer

Replace the network cable connecting the computer to the wall jack.

Answer

Disable the Windows Firewall on the computer.

Question 13

A user reports that their desktop computer can ping other workstations on the local network and can connect to the internet by IP address (e.g., pinging 8.8.8.8 works), but cannot browse any websites using domain names. The network settings show the workstation obtains an IP address automatically via DHCP. The technician checks the DHCP server and confirms it is providing a valid DNS server address. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The DNS server address is not being applied correctly. The user can ping by IP address (e.g., 8.8.8.8) and reach local hosts, confirming Layer 3 connectivity and a correct default gateway. The inability to resolve domain names while the DHCP server is configured to provide a valid DNS server address points to the client not receiving or applying that DNS server address correctly. This is a classic symptom of a DNS resolution failure where the workstation's DNS client configuration is missing or incorrect, often due to a stale DHCP lease, a misconfigured DHCP scope option, or a local DNS cache issue.

Answer

The default gateway address is incorrect

Answer

The network cable is faulty

Answer

The web browser is corrupted

Question 14

A company hosts a critical web application on a virtual machine (VM) in a public cloud. The application experiences sudden, unpredictable traffic spikes that require additional CPU and memory resources for a few hours at a time. The cloud provider automatically provisions and releases these resources based on real-time demand, without any manual intervention from the IT team. Which essential characteristic of cloud computing does this scenario BEST describe?

Accepted Answer

Elasticity. The scenario describes elasticity, which is the ability of a cloud system to automatically scale resources (CPU, memory) up or down in real-time based on demand, without manual intervention. This is a core characteristic of cloud computing, distinct from high availability or fault tolerance, as it focuses on dynamic resource provisioning to match workload spikes.

Answer

High availability

Answer

Load balancing

Answer

Fault tolerance

Question 15

A technician is adding a wireless access point (AP) in an outbuilding connected via Ethernet to the main office network (192.168.1.0/24). After configuring the AP with a static IP of 192.168.1.250, clients can connect to Wi-Fi but cannot access the internet. The main office devices have no issues. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The new AP has its DHCP server enabled. The most likely cause is that the new AP has its DHCP server enabled. When the AP assigns IP addresses to clients via its own DHCP, those clients receive an IP address from a different subnet or scope than the main office network (192.168.1.0/24). This prevents them from reaching the default gateway (e.g., 192.168.1.1) and thus the internet, while the AP itself remains reachable on its static IP. Disabling the AP's DHCP server and allowing clients to obtain addresses from the main network's DHCP server resolves the issue.

Answer

The SSID on the new AP differs from the main network's SSID

Answer

The Ethernet cable connecting the AP is a crossover cable

Answer

The switch feeding the AP is not configured for VLAN 1

Question 16

A technician is troubleshooting a server with a RAID 5 array consisting of three hard drives. The server logs show a failed drive, and the array status is 'Degraded'. The technician replaces the failed drive with a new drive of the same model and capacity. After the rebuild process completes, the array status remains 'Degraded'. The server's OS does not show any new disk errors. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Check the RAID controller's cache battery status. After a RAID 5 rebuild completes but the array remains 'Degraded', the most likely cause is that the RAID controller's write-back cache could not be flushed to the new drive. A failed or missing cache battery forces the controller to operate in write-through mode, which can prevent the array from returning to a healthy state even after a successful rebuild. Checking the cache battery status is the correct next step because it directly affects the controller's ability to commit cached writes and finalize the array status.

Answer

Check the S.M.A.R.T. status of the remaining original drives

Answer

Check the firmware version of the new hard drive

Answer

Check the SAS cable connecting the drives

Question 17

A technician is troubleshooting a desktop computer that does not power on. The motherboard's power LED is lit. When the power button is pressed, no fans spin and no beeps occur. The technician uses a multimeter to test the power supply. The purple wire (+5VSB) reads 5.1V. The green wire (PS_ON) reads 0V when the power button is pressed. However, all other pins on the main power connector show 0V. Which of the following is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The power supply unit is faulty.. The +5VSB (purple wire) reading of 5.1V confirms the standby power rail is working, and the PS_ON (green wire) dropping to 0V when the power button is pressed indicates the motherboard is correctly asserting the power-on signal. However, all other pins showing 0V means the power supply is not turning on its main outputs (+12V, +5V, +3.3V). This is a classic symptom of a faulty power supply unit (PSU) that fails to energize the main rails despite receiving a valid PS_ON signal.

Answer

The motherboard is faulty.

Answer

The power button is defective.

Answer

The CPU is not seated properly.

Question 18

A systems administrator needs to run multiple virtual machines on a single physical server for a high-performance computing environment. The administrator requires the lowest possible overhead and direct access to hardware resources. Which of the following should be installed on the server?

Accepted Answer

Type 1 hypervisor. A Type 1 hypervisor (bare-metal hypervisor) runs directly on the physical hardware without a host operating system, providing the lowest possible overhead and direct access to hardware resources such as CPU, memory, and I/O. This makes it ideal for high-performance computing (HPC) environments where minimal latency and maximum resource efficiency are critical.

Answer

Type 2 hypervisor

Answer

Cloud computing software

Answer

Server operating system

Question 19

A network technician is troubleshooting inter-VLAN routing. Clients on VLAN 10 (192.168.10.0/24) cannot communicate with servers on VLAN 20 (192.168.20.0/24). The router has subinterfaces for both VLANs and is connected to a layer 2 switch. The switch port connecting to the router is configured as an access port in VLAN 10. An ACL on the router is configured to permit all traffic between the VLANs. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the issue?

Accepted Answer

The switch port is not configured as a trunk. The switch port connecting to the router is configured as an access port in VLAN 10, which means it can only carry traffic for VLAN 10. For inter-VLAN routing, the router's subinterfaces need to receive frames tagged with their respective VLAN IDs. A trunk port (802.1Q) must be used on the switch side to allow both VLAN 10 and VLAN 20 traffic to reach the router. Without a trunk, frames from VLAN 20 are dropped at the switch port, preventing communication.

Answer

The ACL on the router is misconfigured

Answer

The default gateway on the servers is set incorrectly

Answer

VLAN 20 is not defined on the switch

Question 20

A technician is upgrading a desktop computer with a new graphics card that requires a 6-pin PCIe power connector. The existing power supply has sufficient wattage but does not have any PCIe power cables. Which of the following should the technician do to BEST resolve this issue?

Accepted Answer

Replace the power supply with one that has PCIe power cables. The existing power supply lacks PCIe power cables, and using adapters (Molex or SATA) can overload the power supply's 12V rail or cause instability due to inadequate current delivery. Replacing the power supply with one that has native PCIe connectors ensures proper power delivery and safety, as PCIe connectors are rated for up to 75W per 6-pin cable, while adapters may not handle sustained loads reliably.

Answer

Use a Molex-to-PCIe power adapter

Answer

Use a SATA-to-PCIe power adapter

Answer

Leave the PCIe power connector unplugged and install the card