350-601 Automation — All Questions With Answers

A network engineer wants to automate the deployment of a new VLAN across all Cisco Nexus switches in a data center using Python scripts. Which tool is most appropriate for this task?

Question 2mediummultiple choice

A data center team is troubleshooting an automation script that uses REST API to configure a Cisco Nexus 9000 switch. The script fails with a '401 Unauthorized' error. What is the most likely cause?

Question 3hardmultiple choice

An engineer is designing an automation solution for a large data center with multiple Cisco UCS Manager domains. Which approach best ensures idempotent configuration operations?

Question 4mediummultiple choice

A DevOps team uses Ansible to automate the configuration of Cisco Nexus switches. After running a playbook, some switches have the correct configuration but others do not. The playbook uses the 'nxos_config' module. Which action should be taken to ensure consistent configuration?

Question 5hardmultiple choice

A network engineer is implementing automated configuration management using Cisco NSO (Network Services Orchestrator). The team wants to ensure that any configuration changes made directly on the devices (out-of-band) are detected and reconciled. Which NSO feature should be used?

Question 6mediummulti select

Which TWO statements about Cisco NX-API are correct? (Choose two.)

Question 7hardmulti select

Which THREE statements about Cisco UCS Manager automation using XML API are correct? (Choose three.)

Question 8mediummultiple choice

Refer to the exhibit. An automation script is used to configure a new VLAN 40 on Eth1/2 trunk. The script sends the following NX-API command: 'switchport trunk allowed vlan add 40'. After execution, the engineer runs 'show running-config interface eth1/2' and sees that the trunk allowed VLAN list shows '10,20,30,40'. However, the automation script logs indicate success for adding VLAN 40, but the running config does not show the change. What is the most likely issue?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

interface Eth1/1
  description Server-Connection
  switchport mode access
  switchport access vlan 100
  spanning-tree port type edge
  no shutdown

interface Eth1/2
  description Trunk-to-Core
  switchport mode trunk
  switchport trunk allowed vlan 10,20,30
  spanning-tree port type network
  no shutdown

Question 9hardmultiple choice

Refer to the exhibit. An automation script queries the Cisco Nexus 9000 using the NX-API JSON format and receives the above output. The script is designed to validate that interface Eth1/1 is in access mode with VLAN 100. However, the script reports a failure. What is the most likely reason?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

{
  "totalCount": "1",
  "imdata": [
    {
      "l1PhysIf": {
        "attributes": {
          "id": "Eth1/1",
          "adminSt": "up",
          "descr": "To-Server",
          "mtu": "1500",
          "switchportMode": "access",
          "accessVlan": "100"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}

Question 10hardmultiple choice

A large enterprise runs a multi-site Cisco ACI fabric with APICs in a cluster. The automation team uses Python scripts with the Cobra SDK to create and manage tenant policies. Recently, after upgrading the APIC firmware from version 4.2(3) to 5.2(1), a script that previously worked now fails with an 'Unauthorized' error when calling the APIC REST API. The script uses a service account with a locally stored password. The automation engineer verifies that the account credentials are correct and that the account is not locked. The script was not modified during the upgrade. Which action should the engineer take to resolve the issue?

Question 11mediumdrag order

Arrange the steps to configure a port-channel (LAG) on a Cisco Nexus switch.

Drag steps to the numbered slots on the right, or tap a step then tap a slot.

Steps

Order

1Step 1

2Step 2

3Step 3

4Step 4

5Step 5

Question 12mediumdrag order

Arrange the steps to recover a lost admin password on a Cisco Nexus switch.

Drag steps to the numbered slots on the right, or tap a step then tap a slot.

Steps

Order

1Step 1

2Step 2

3Step 3

4Step 4

5Step 5

Question 13mediummatching

Match each Cisco ACI component to its role.

Drag a concept onto its matching description — or click a concept then click the description.

Concepts

Matches

Central controller for policy management

Leaf-to-leaf connectivity and fabric backplane

Top-of-rack switch connecting servers to fabric

Endpoint group for policy application

Bridge domain for Layer 2 forwarding context

Question 14mediummatching

Match each Cisco data center high availability feature to its description.

Drag a concept onto its matching description — or click a concept then click the description.

Concepts

Matches

First-hop redundancy for default gateway

Multi-chassis link aggregation with loop prevention

Transparent interconnection of lots of links (TRILL-based)

Non-Stop Forwarding during supervisor switchover

Stateful Switchover for control plane redundancy

Question 15easymultiple choice

An engineer needs to automate configuration backups on NX-OS switches using Python. Which Python library is specifically designed for this purpose?

Question 16mediummultiple choice

A Python script using NX-API returns HTTP 401. What is the most likely cause?

Question 17hardmultiple choice

In an ACI fabric, an automation engineer needs to deploy tenant policies in an idempotent manner. Which approach is most aligned with best practices?

Question 18easymultiple choice

Which protocol is recommended for streaming model-driven telemetry from NX-OS to a collector?

Question 19mediummultiple choice

Ansible playbook that deploys VLANs on NX-OS fails on a particular switch with 'privilege escalation required'. What should be checked first?

Question 20hardmultiple choice

An engineer is writing a Python script to automate ACI fabric discovery using the APIC SDK. The script needs to wait until the fabric formation is complete before proceeding. Which approach is most reliable?

Question 21easymultiple choice

A NETCONF session to an NX-OS switch fails with 'Connection refused'. What is the most likely cause?

Question 22mediummultiple choice

For consistent multi-data-center automation, which tool is best suited to orchestrate both NX-OS and ACI across sites?

Question 23hardmultiple choice

A Python script uses NX-API's XML output to extract interface status. Which method is most robust and recommended for parsing the XML?

Question 24easymulti select

Which TWO methods are supported for authenticating to the APIC REST API?

Question 25mediummulti select

Which THREE statements about Cisco Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) are true?

Question 26hardmulti select

Which TWO are best practices when automating ACI fabric configuration using Ansible?

Question 27mediummultiple choice

Refer to the exhibit. An NX-API request returns this JSON error. What is the most likely cause?

Exhibit

{
  "error": {
    "code": "400",
    "message": "Invalid command",
    "clierror": "Invalid command at line 1"
  }
}

Question 28hardmultiple choice

Refer to the exhibit. A Python script using the Cisco ACI Cobra SDK fails with 'AuthenticationError'. Which of the following is the most likely cause?

Exhibit

from cobra.mit.access import MoDirectory
from cobra.mit.session import LoginSession
session = LoginSession('https://apic-ip', 'admin', 'password')
md = MoDirectory(session)
md.login()
print(md.lookupByClass('fvTenant'))

Question 29easymultiple choice

Refer to the exhibit. An Ansible playbook targeting an NX-OS switch fails with this error. What is the most likely cause?

Exhibit

fatal: [nxos-switch]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "msg": "unable to authenticate: authentication failed", "invocation": {"module_args": {"password": "VALUE_SPECIFIED_IN_NO_LOG_PARAMETER", "username": "admin"}}}

Question 30mediummultiple choice

A network engineer is automating a repetitive configuration task on a Nexus 9000 switch using Python scripts with NX-API. The script sends a CLI command via POST request but receives HTTP 400 status with error 'Invalid request payload'. What is the most likely cause?

Question 31hardmultiple choice

An organization is deploying Ansible for network automation across multiple Nexus 9000 leaf switches. They need to ensure that configuration tasks are idempotent and only apply changes when necessary. Which best practice should be followed when using the cisco.nxos.nxos_config module?

Question 32easymultiple choice

What is the primary purpose of NX-API on Cisco Nexus switches in a data center automation context?

Question 33mediummultiple choice

A Python script using the pyATS framework to parse 'show interface' output on a Nexus 9000 switch fails with a parsing error, even though the CLI command runs successfully. What is the most likely missing component?

Question 34hardmultiple choice

A network team is planning to automate configuration management of a brownfield Nexus 9000 fabric using YANG data models and NETCONF. Which consideration is critical when implementing this solution?

Question 35easymultiple choice

Read the full NAT/PAT explanation →

Which tool provides a programmatic HTTP-based interface to execute CLI commands on Cisco Nexus switches and returns structured JSON data?

Question 36mediummultiple choice

When using Cisco NSO (Network Services Orchestrator) to automate service creation across a data center network, what is a key consideration regarding device compatibility?

Question 37hardmultiple choice

An Ansible playbook using the cisco.nxos.nxos_config module fails with the error: 'Unsupported parameters for (cisco.nxos.nxos_config) module: connection type setting'. What is the most likely cause?

Question 38easymultiple choice

What is a key advantage of using structured data (e.g., JSON or XML) from Cisco NX-API responses compared to traditional CLI scraping (e.g., using regular expressions)?

Question 39mediummulti select

Which TWO are benefits of using the Cisco NX-API for network automation compared to traditional SSH-based scripting?

Question 40hardmulti select

Which THREE components are required to successfully use NETCONF for configuration automation on a Nexus 9000 switch?

Question 41easymulti select

Which TWO statements are true regarding the differences between REST API (NX-API) and NETCONF for automating Nexus switches?

Question 42mediummultiple choice

Refer to the exhibit. An engineer is trying to automate configuration using NX-API on a Nexus 9000 switch. They have enabled 'feature nxapi' but when they attempt to send a POST request to the NX-API endpoint, they receive '400 Bad Request' with 'Invalid message format'. What is the most likely missing configuration?

Exhibit

show running-config | include feature\nfeature nxapi\nfeature bash\nfeature interface-vlan\nfeature lacp\nfeature vpc

Question 43hardmultiple choice

Refer to the exhibit. A Python script is processing the response from NX-API. It attempts to extract the interface state using `response['ins_api']['outputs']['output']['body']['ROW_interface']['state']` but receives a KeyError. What is the most likely reason?

Exhibit

GET /ins HTTP/1.1\nHost: 10.1.1.1\nContent-Type: application/json\n\n{\n  "ins_api": {\n    "version": "1.0",\n    "type": "cli_show",\n    "chunk": "0",\n    "sid": "1",\n    "input": "show interface eth1/1"\n  }\n}\n\nResponse:\n{\n  "ins_api": {\n    "outputs": {\n      "output": {\n        "msg": "Success",\n        "code": "200",\n        "input": "show interface eth1/1",\n        "body": {
          "TABLE_interface": { ... },
          "ROW_interface": { "interface": "Ethernet1/1", "state": "up" }
        }\n      }\n    }\n  }\n}

Question 44easymultiple choice

Refer to the exhibit. What is the intended effect of this Ansible playbook task?

Exhibit

- name: Apply VLAN configuration to Nexus switches\n  hosts: nexus_switches\n  gather_facts: no\n  tasks:\n    - name: Configure VLAN 10\n      cisco.nxos.nxos_config:\n        lines:\n          - vlan 10\n          - name Automation_VLAN\n        provider: "{{ cli }}"

Question 45easymultiple choice

A network engineer wants to automate the deployment of VLANs across 50 Nexus switches in a data center. Which approach provides the most consistent and repeatable results with minimal manual effort?

Question 46mediummultiple choice

A team is using Cisco DCNM for fabric management. They need to integrate with an external CI/CD pipeline. Which API should they use to trigger a network configuration change?

Question 47hardmultiple choice

An engineer receives an error 'XML namespace mismatch' when using NETCONF to configure a Nexus switch. The YANG model used is from the Cisco NX-OS openconfig model. What is the most likely cause?

Question 48easymultiple choice

Read the full NAT/PAT explanation →

A data center automation script uses Python's requests library to call the NX-API for a Nexus 9000 switch. The script works but returns HTTP 400. Which is a likely cause?

Question 49mediummultiple choice

A company wants to automate backup of running-configurations for 200 Nexus switches. Which solution provides the best combination of reliability and version history?

Question 50hardmultiple choice

A Nexus switch configured with 'feature nxapi' and 'nxapi https port 443' fails to respond to REST API calls from a monitoring system. The engineer can ping the management IP. Which troubleshooting step should be taken first?

Question 51easymulti select

An engineer needs to collect streaming telemetry from a Nexus 9000 switch. Which two protocols can be used to transmit telemetry data to a collector? (Choose two.)

Question 52mediummulti select

A network automation engineer is writing an Ansible playbook to configure Nexus switches. Which three modules are available to manage NX-OS configuration? (Choose three.)

Question 53hardmulti select

A data center engineer is implementing model-driven telemetry using Cisco NX-OS. Which three components are required in the telemetry configuration? (Choose three.)

Question 54mediummultiple choice

Refer to the exhibit. An engineer configured NX-API on a Nexus 9000 switch. The REST API client receives 'SSL_ERROR_BAD_CERT_DOMAIN'. What is the most likely cause?

Exhibit

feature nxapi
nxapi http port 80
nxapi https port 443
nxapi certificate /bootflash/self.crt key /bootflash/self.key

Question 55easymultiple choice

A data center has 100 Nexus switches in a fabric managed by Cisco Nexus Dashboard Orchestrator (NDO). The network team needs to automate the creation of a new network template that includes multiple VLANs and VRF configurations. They want to ensure that the template is applied consistently across all leaf switches without manual intervention. The engineer writes a Python script using the NDO REST API to create the template and deploy it. However, the deployment fails with an error 'Template validation failed: overlapping IP subnets'. Upon reviewing the template, the engineer notices that two VLANs have overlapping subnet definitions. Which action should the engineer take to resolve this issue efficiently?

Question 56mediummultiple choice

A large enterprise data center uses Cisco UCS Manager to manage hundreds of blade servers. The automation team has been using Python SDK scripts to provision service profiles. Recently, after a UCS Manager firmware upgrade, several scripts that previously worked are now failing with 'AttributeError: 'ServiceProfile' object has no attribute 'set_vnic_order''. The team confirms that the UCS Manager version changed from 4.0 to 4.2. Which course of action should the engineer take to resolve the issue?

Question 57mediummultiple choice

An organization is migrating from traditional SNMP monitoring to model-driven telemetry on their Nexus 9000 switches. They have configured a telemetry destination using gRPC and have defined sensor paths for interface statistics. After several hours, the collector (a Linux server running Telegraf) reports no data received. The engineer verifies that the switch can reach the collector via ICMP. On the switch, 'show telemetry data collector details' indicates the destination is 'connected', but the 'last data sent' timestamp is several hours old. Which action should the engineer take next?

Question 58hardmultiple choice

A financial services company operates a multi-site data center with Cisco ACI. The automation team uses Ansible Tower to manage configurations. They have a playbook that configures EPGs using the 'aci_epg' module. The playbook runs successfully for most sites but fails on one site with the error 'Object 'uni/tn-Tenant1/ap-AP1/epg-EPG1' doesn't exist'. The engineer checks the ACI fabric and confirms that the tenant, application profile, and EPG exist on that site. The playbook uses the same credentials and variables across all sites. What is the most likely cause of the failure?

Question 59mediummulti select

A data center team is implementing configuration automation for a fleet of Nexus 9000 switches. They need a solution that supports idempotent configuration, works well with version control, and does not require an agent on the switches. Which two tools should they consider?

Question 60hardmultiple choice

Refer to the exhibit. An engineer is using an Ansible playbook to configure a Nexus switch. The playbook task uses the nxos_config module to set an MTU value on an interface. What is the most likely issue?

Exhibit

TASK [Configure interface] ****************************************************
fatal: [nxos-switch-1]: FAILED! => {"changed": false, "msg": "Unsupported parameters for (nxos_config) module: mtu Supported parameters include: after, backup, backup_options, before, config, defaults, diff_against, diff_ignore_lines, intended_config, lines, match, parents, provider, replace, save_when, src"}

Question 61easymultiple choice