These are the questions most candidates get wrong. They require connecting multiple concepts, reading tricky output, or knowing edge-case behaviour that isn't on most study cards. Practising them trains you to operate under uncertainty — a necessary skill on the real exam.
Start Scenario PracticeA data center engineer is troubleshooting high CPU utilization on a Cisco Nexus 9000 switch. The engineer suspects a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack targeting the switch. To mitigate the attack, the engineer configures a Control Plane Policing (CoPP) policy that drops all ICMP packets destined to the switch. The policy is applied to the control-plane using the 'service-policy input COPP' command. After applying the policy, the switch CPU utilization remains high, and ICMP traffic is still reaching the switch. The engineer verifies that the CoPP policy is applied and that the class-map matches ICMP. The policy-map has the correct police and drop actions. No other CoPP policies are applied. What is the most likely cause of the issue?
Explanation: The management interface (mgmt0) on Cisco Nexus 9000 switches operates in a separate management VRF and is not subject to Control Plane Policing (CoPP) policies applied to the default control-plane. CoPP only polices traffic that ingresses through data-plane interfaces (e.g., Ethernet, port-channel). If the DDoS attack is arriving via the management interface, the CoPP policy will not filter it, leaving CPU utilization high. This is a common oversight when troubleshooting control-plane protection.
An engineer is configuring Fibre Channel PortChannels on a Cisco MDS switch. Which statement about Fibre Channel PortChannels is true?
Explanation: Fibre Channel PortChannels require all member ports to be of the same type (e.g., all E-ports). They load-balance across links and are compatible with VSAN trunking. They do not require the same speed on all ports, but it is recommended.
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?
Explanation: The error 'Unsupported parameters for (cisco.nxos.nxos_config) module: connection type setting' occurs because the `connection: network_cli` parameter is being passed inside the task block of the playbook. The `cisco.nxos.nxos_config` module does not accept a `connection` parameter at the task level; connection settings must be defined at the play or inventory level. This is a common syntax error when using Ansible network modules.
In an FCoE environment, which protocol is responsible for discovering and initializing FCoE-capable endpoints, including the exchange of MAC addresses and establishing virtual links?
Explanation: FIP (FCoE Initialization Protocol) is the protocol defined in FC-BB-5 that discovers FCoE-capable endpoints (ENodes and FCFs), exchanges MAC addresses, and establishes virtual links between them. It performs the FCoE equivalent of fabric login before FCoE data traffic flows. FCoE itself is the encapsulation of Fibre Channel frames over Ethernet, not the discovery/initialization protocol.
During an FCoE deployment, the server team reports that hosts can reach the storage array but performance is intermittent with periodic timeouts. The network team sees no errors on the FCoE VLAN. The DCB configuration on the upstream switch shows that PFC is enabled for CoS 3. What should the engineer check next?
Explanation: D is correct because PFC (Priority Flow Control) must be consistently configured on both ends of an FCoE link to prevent frame loss. If PFC is enabled for CoS 3 on the upstream switch but not on the server's vNIC or the FCoE VLAN interfaces, the lack of lossless behavior causes intermittent timeouts and performance degradation, even if the FCoE VLAN shows no errors.
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Practice all Hard Difficulty QuestionsThese are the questions most candidates get wrong. They require connecting multiple concepts, reading tricky output, or knowing edge-case behaviour that isn't on most study cards. Practising them trains you to operate under uncertainty — a necessary skill on the real exam. These appear throughout the 350-601 and require you to apply your knowledge, not just recall facts.
Cisco doesn't publish an exact breakdown, but scenario-based questions (especially exhibit and command-output formats) make up a significant portion of the 350-601. Practicing each scenario type ensures you're ready for any format.
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