220-1101 Practice Test 38 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A technician is building a database server that requires fast random read/write performance for small data blocks. Which of the following storage devices will BEST meet this requirement?

Accepted Answer

An NVMe M.2 solid-state drive. An NVMe M.2 solid-state drive is the best choice because it connects directly via the PCIe bus, bypassing the SATA controller and its protocol overhead. This provides dramatically lower latency and higher IOPS (input/output operations per second), which is essential for fast random read/write performance on small data blocks in a database server.

Answer

A 7200 RPM hard disk drive

Answer

A SATA-based solid-state drive

Answer

An external USB 3.0 hard drive

Question 2

A company hosts its web servers on a public cloud IaaS platform. They want to ensure that if the physical host running one of their virtual machines fails, the VM automatically restarts on another healthy physical host within the same cloud provider's infrastructure. Which cloud computing characteristic makes this possible?

Accepted Answer

High availability. High availability (C) is the correct answer because it refers to a system's ability to remain operational and automatically recover from failures. In this scenario, the automatic restart of a VM on a healthy physical host after a host failure is a direct implementation of high availability, often achieved through features like VMware vSphere HA or Microsoft Hyper-V Failover Clustering, which monitor host health and restart VMs on surviving hosts.

Answer

Rapid elasticity

Answer

Resource pooling

Answer

Measured service

Question 3

A company wants to move its on-premises email server to the cloud. The goal is to eliminate all management overhead related to the operating system, security patches, and the email application itself. The IT team needs the email service to be highly available and automatically scalable. Which cloud service model BEST meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

B. Software as a Service (SaaS). Software as a Service (SaaS) delivers a fully managed email application over the internet, where the provider handles all underlying infrastructure, operating system, security patches, and application updates. This model eliminates all management overhead for the IT team while offering built-in high availability and automatic scalability, as seen with services like Microsoft 365 Exchange Online or Google Workspace.

Answer

A. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Answer

C. Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Answer

D. Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Question 4

A user reports intermittent network connectivity on a desktop computer. The technician observes that the Ethernet link light on the NIC turns off for a few seconds and then turns back on. The cable passes a wiremap test, the switch port is verified good with another device, and the NIC driver is updated. The issue occurs more frequently when the computer's case fan runs at high speed. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

Electromagnetic interference from the case fan. The intermittent link light behavior, combined with the correlation to the case fan running at high speed, points to electromagnetic interference (EMI) from the fan motor. EMI can disrupt the electrical signals in the unshielded twisted-pair (UTP) cable, causing the NIC to lose link momentarily. Since the cable passes a wiremap test and the switch port works with another device, the issue is environmental, not a hardware fault.

Answer

Faulty NIC (Network Interface Card)

Answer

Incorrect pinout of the Ethernet cable

Answer

Driver conflict with the fan controller

Question 5

A small office network consists of a router and an unmanaged switch. Every day at 2:00 PM, users report extremely slow network performance and intermittent connectivity that lasts about 30 minutes. A technician checks the switch's interface statistics and notices a high number of CRC errors on the port connected to a VoIP phone. The cable connecting the phone to the wall jack is a known working Cat5e cable. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the issue?

Accepted Answer

The VoIP phone is configured for half-duplex while the switch port is using full-duplex.. A is correct because a duplex mismatch between the VoIP phone (half-duplex) and the switch port (full-duplex) causes CRC errors, collisions, and performance degradation. The daily 2:00 PM timing suggests a scheduled task like a phone firmware update or DHCP renewal that triggers heavy traffic, exacerbating the mismatch. CRC errors specifically indicate layer 1/2 frame corruption, which is a classic symptom of duplex mismatch.

Answer

The switch is experiencing a broadcast storm caused by a loop in the network.

Answer

The VoIP phone is running QoS that priority-tags all traffic.

Answer

The Category 5e cable is not capable of handling VoIP traffic.

Question 6

A technician is building a workstation with a motherboard that has four DIMM slots arranged as two channels (slots 1/2 for channel A, slots 3/4 for channel B). The technician installs two identical 8 GB DDR4 modules in slots 1 and 2. The system POSTs successfully and shows 16 GB of RAM, but subsequent memory benchmarks indicate that the memory bandwidth is only half of the expected value. Which of the following should the technician do to resolve this issue?

Accepted Answer

Move one of the RAM modules to slot 3. The motherboard has two memory channels: channel A (slots 1 and 2) and channel B (slots 3 and 4). Installing both modules in slots 1 and 2 places them on the same channel, which prevents dual-channel interleaving. This halves the memory bandwidth because the CPU can only access one module at a time per channel. Moving one module to slot 3 (channel B) enables dual-channel mode, doubling the effective bandwidth.

Answer

Enable XMP (Extreme Memory Profile) in the BIOS

Answer

Replace both modules with single-rank modules

Answer

Increase the memory voltage in the BIOS

Question 7

A system administrator manages a virtualized web server on a Type 1 hypervisor. The web server's memory usage fluctuates significantly throughout the day due to varying traffic. The administrator wants the VM to automatically use only the memory it needs, allowing the hypervisor to reclaim unused memory for other VMs. Which feature should the administrator configure on the VM?

Accepted Answer

Memory ballooning. Memory ballooning is a feature in virtualization that allows the hypervisor to reclaim unused memory from a VM by inflating a 'balloon' driver inside the guest OS, which forces the guest to release memory pages back to the hypervisor. This is ideal for the described scenario where the VM's memory usage fluctuates, as it dynamically adjusts the VM's memory footprint without requiring a reboot or manual intervention.

Answer

Virtual machine snapshots

Answer

Fault tolerance

Answer

CPU hot-add

Question 8

A user's Android phone has a cracked screen, but the touch functionality still works. The user wants to prevent glass fragments from falling out and to protect their fingers until the phone can be repaired. Which of the following is the BEST immediate action?

Accepted Answer

Apply a screen protector. Applying a screen protector is the best immediate action because it adheres to the cracked glass, holding fragments in place and providing a smooth surface to protect the user's fingers until a full repair can be performed. The touch functionality still works, so the digitizer (the touch-sensitive layer beneath the glass) is intact, meaning a simple protective layer is sufficient for temporary containment without interfering with capacitive touch sensing.

Answer

Replace the digitizer assembly

Answer

Power off the phone

Answer

Use a case that covers the screen

Question 9

A technician is building a new desktop computer. After installing the CPU, heatsink, RAM, and connecting all cables, the system powers on but displays no video. The motherboard has integrated graphics. The technician hears a series of short beeps. What should the technician check first?

Accepted Answer

The RAM. The series of short beeps is a common POST (Power-On Self-Test) code indicating a memory failure. Since the motherboard has integrated graphics and the system powers on, the CPU and power supply are likely functioning. The RAM is the most probable cause because improper seating or faulty modules prevent the system from completing POST and initializing video output.

Answer

The power supply

Answer

The CPU

Answer

The video cable

Question 10

A technician is building a new desktop computer and needs to connect the front-panel power button to the motherboard. Which of the following connectors or headers is designed for this purpose?

Accepted Answer

F_PANEL header. The F_PANEL header is a dedicated connector block on the motherboard that interfaces with the front-panel controls of the computer case, including the power button, reset button, and status LEDs. It uses a specific pinout to carry the momentary contact signal from the power button to the motherboard's power management circuitry, allowing the system to power on or off.

Answer

SATA cable

Answer

24-pin ATX power connector

Answer

PCIe power cable

Question 11

A technician is building a desktop computer and applies thermal paste to the CPU before installing the heatsink. The technician uses significantly more paste than recommended. Which of the following is the most likely consequence of this action?

Accepted Answer

The CPU will overheat because excess paste reduces heat transfer efficiency. Excess thermal paste acts as an insulator rather than a conductor, creating a thicker layer that impedes heat transfer from the CPU die to the heatsink base. This reduces thermal conductivity efficiency, causing the CPU to run hotter and potentially throttle or fail under load.

Answer

The thermal paste will cause a short circuit on the motherboard

Answer

The CPU will run cooler due to better coverage

Answer

There will be no noticeable effect on system performance

Question 12

A technician is building a new desktop computer. The motherboard has two M.2 slots. The technician installs an M.2 NVMe SSD in the first slot, but the system does not recognize it during POST. The BIOS shows the SATA ports are in use. The technician checks the motherboard manual and finds that one of the SATA ports is disabled when the M.2 slot is used. Which of the following is the most likely reason the M.2 SSD is not detected?

Accepted Answer

The M.2 slot shares bandwidth with a SATA port that has a drive connected. The motherboard manual indicates that one SATA port is disabled when the M.2 slot is used, which is a classic sign of shared bandwidth. Since the BIOS shows SATA ports are in use, the M.2 slot is likely sharing its PCIe lanes with that specific SATA port, and the connected SATA drive is consuming the shared resources, preventing the M.2 NVMe SSD from being detected. This is a common design choice on consumer motherboards to reduce cost and complexity.

Answer

The M.2 SSD is SATA-based but the slot only supports NVMe

Answer

The M.2 SSD is not properly seated

Answer

The BIOS settings need to be changed to enable the M.2 slot

Question 13

A technician is troubleshooting a desktop PC that randomly shuts down without warning, particularly when the user runs resource-intensive applications like video editing software. The technician has already replaced the power supply, verified that the CPU temperature remains within normal limits under load, and updated all drivers. The event logs show a kernel-power 41 error with no preceding critical errors. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Inspect the CPU socket for bent pins or improper seating. The kernel-power 41 error indicates an unexpected loss of power or system crash without a clean shutdown. Since the power supply has been replaced and CPU temperatures are normal, the next likely cause is an intermittent electrical or physical connection issue at the CPU socket. Bent pins or improper seating can cause voltage drops or signal corruption under heavy load, leading to sudden shutdowns even when temperatures are acceptable.

Answer

Replace the RAM modules with known-good sticks

Answer

Replace the CMOS battery

Answer

Reinstall the operating system

Question 14

A user reports that their workstation is displaying an 'IP address conflict' error message and cannot access the network. The technician runs ipconfig and sees IPv4 address 192.168.1.15 with subnet mask 255.255.255.0. Which of the following should the technician do FIRST to resolve the issue?

Accepted Answer

Run ipconfig /release and then ipconfig /renew. The 'IP address conflict' error indicates that another device on the same subnet is already using 192.168.1.15. The correct first step is to release the current DHCP lease with ipconfig /release and then request a new IP address with ipconfig /renew, which forces the DHCP client to obtain a fresh, non-conflicting address from the DHCP server.

Answer

Change the subnet mask to 255.255.0.0

Answer

Change the DNS server address to 8.8.8.8

Answer

Disable the Windows Firewall

Question 15

A technician is troubleshooting a network issue in an office. Users connected to a specific wall jack report intermittent connectivity. The switch port corresponding to that jack shows a high number of CRC errors. The technician removes the wall plate and finds that the twisted pairs are untwisted too far back from the RJ45 connector. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the CRC errors?

Accepted Answer

The twisted pairs are not properly terminated. CRC errors indicate that frames are being received with invalid checksums, typically due to signal integrity issues. Untwisting the pairs too far from the RJ45 connector disrupts the cable's impedance and crosstalk rejection, causing bit corruption that leads to CRC errors. Proper termination requires maintaining the twist up to within 0.5 inches (13 mm) of the connector per TIA/EIA-568 standards.

Answer

The cable length exceeds 100 meters

Answer

The switch port is configured for the wrong speed or duplex

Answer

Electromagnetic interference (EMI) from nearby power cables