FC0-U71 Practice Test 3 — 30 Questions

Question 1

A company wants to protect against data loss if a single hard drive fails. They have three identical drives. Which RAID configuration provides fault tolerance while maximizing storage capacity?

Accepted Answer

RAID 5. RAID 5 uses block-level striping with distributed parity, so if one of the three drives fails, the data can be rebuilt from the remaining drives plus the parity information. With three drives, RAID 5 provides fault tolerance for a single drive failure while using only one drive's worth of capacity for parity, maximizing usable storage (2/3 of total raw capacity).

Answer

RAID 0

Answer

JBOD

Answer

RAID 1

Question 2

A developer writes the following pseudocode for a process that finds the largest number in a list:

SET max = first element
FOR each number in list
   IF number > max THEN
      SET max = number
   END IF
ENDFOR
OUTPUT max

What programming concept does this pseudocode represent?

Accepted Answer

Algorithm. The pseudocode describes a step-by-step procedure for solving a problem — finding the maximum value in a list — which is the definition of an algorithm. It specifies a finite sequence of operations (initialize max, iterate, compare, update) that transforms input into output. This is a classic linear-search maximum algorithm with O(n) time complexity.

Answer

API

Answer

Data structure

Answer

Flowchart

Question 3

A small real estate office with 12 employees has been using the same network setup for five years. Employees use both company-issued laptops and personal smartphones to access email and client listings. Last week, an employee clicked a link in a phishing email, which led to a ransomware infection on the company file server. The server was encrypted, and the attackers demanded a ransom. The office had no backups; all client data and contracts were lost. The office manager wants to prevent such incidents in the future. Which of the following should be the FIRST security measure implemented, considering the root cause of the breach?

Accepted Answer

Mandate security awareness training for all employees, focusing on phishing identification. The root cause was a phishing email that tricked an employee. While technical controls like antivirus (A), next-generation firewall (B), and full-disk encryption (C) are valuable, they do not address the human factor. Security awareness training (D) educates users to recognize phishing attempts, reducing the likelihood of similar incidents. Without training, other controls can be bypassed. Option D is the most direct and effective first step.

Answer

Install antivirus software on all company laptops and personal devices

Answer

Deploy a next-generation firewall with intrusion prevention

Answer

Enable full-disk encryption on all company laptops

Question 4

A user is working on a presentation for a client meeting. The user has been using Microsoft PowerPoint and has completed the slides. The user now needs to create handouts for the audience so they can follow along. The handouts should show the slides with space for notes. Which of the following is the BEST way to create these handouts?

Accepted Answer

Use PowerPoint's handout feature to print slides with note lines.. PowerPoint's handout feature is specifically designed to create printed handouts that include slide thumbnails and adjacent note lines for audience notes. This built-in functionality (File > Print > Handouts) allows you to select the number of slides per page and automatically adds ruled lines for note-taking, making it the most efficient and correct method for this task.

Answer

Print the presentation with full-page slides.

Answer

Manually copy each slide into a word processing document.

Answer

Take screenshots of each slide and arrange them in a document.

Question 5

A database administrator is designing a normalized database for an e-commerce site. Which TWO actions represent best practices for normalization?

Accepted Answer

Removing duplicate data from tables by creating separate tables for each entity. Option C is correct because normalization's core goal is eliminating redundant data by decomposing entities into their own tables, which reduces update, insert, and delete anomalies. Option D is correct because splitting customer data into a Customers table and an Orders table and linking them with a foreign key enforces referential integrity and models the one-to-many relationship properly, which is a standard normalization practice (e.g., achieving 2NF/3NF). Option A is wrong because creating separate order tables without linking them destroys the relationships between customers and orders and prevents meaningful queries. Option B is wrong because storing product details as a list in a single column violates first normal form (atomic values) and makes querying and updating impractical. Option E is wrong because storing calculated totals in the same table introduces derived/redundant data that can become inconsistent, and normalization typically avoids persisting computed values.

Answer

Creating separate tables for each customer order without linking them

Answer

Storing all product details in a single column as a list

Answer

Storing calculated totals in the same table to avoid joins

Question 6

A user receives an error message indicating 'insufficient memory' when opening several applications. Which action will most likely resolve the issue?

Accepted Answer

Install more RAM. The error message 'insufficient memory' indicates that the system has exhausted its physical RAM capacity while trying to load multiple applications. Installing more RAM directly increases the amount of physical memory available, allowing the operating system to keep more application data in memory without resorting to slower paging. This is the most effective long-term solution for resolving memory exhaustion caused by running several applications simultaneously.

Answer

Clear the browser cache

Answer

Increase virtual memory

Answer

Defragment the hard drive

Question 7

A development team is using a stack data structure to manage function calls. Which of the following correctly describes the order in which items are removed from a stack?

Accepted Answer

Last-In-First-Out (LIFO). A stack is a Last-In-First-Out (LIFO) data structure: the most recently pushed element is the first one popped. This matches how function call stacks work — the most recent function call returns first. The scenario explicitly references managing function calls, which is the canonical LIFO use case.

Answer

Random order

Answer

First-In-First-Out (FIFO)

Answer

Based on priority

Question 8

A company has two office buildings 1.5 km apart and needs to connect their networks with a high-speed, reliable link. Which cabling type is most appropriate?

Accepted Answer

Fiber optic. Fiber optic cabling is the most appropriate choice for connecting two office buildings 1.5 km apart because it supports high-speed data transmission over long distances (up to several kilometers) with minimal signal loss and immunity to electromagnetic interference (EMI). Unlike copper-based cables, fiber optic uses light pulses to transmit data, making it ideal for reliable, high-bandwidth links between separate buildings.

Answer

Cat6a

Answer

Coaxial

Answer

Cat5e

Question 9

A company wants to deploy a new wireless network in its office. The network must support high device density and minimize interference from neighboring networks. Which Wi-Fi standard and frequency band combination is most suitable?

Accepted Answer

802.11ax on 5GHz. 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) on 5GHz (C) is the best choice because Wi-Fi 6 introduces OFDMA, MU-MIMO, and BSS Coloring, which improve spectral efficiency and reduce interference in high-density environments. The 5GHz band offers more non-overlapping channels and less interference than 2.4GHz, making it ideal for dense office deployments.

Answer

802.11n on 5GHz

Answer

802.11ax on 2.4GHz

Answer

802.11ac on 2.4GHz

Question 10

A technician is converting the decimal number 255 to binary. Which binary value is correct?

Accepted Answer

11111111. 255 in binary is 11111111 (eight 1s).

Answer

10000000

Answer

11111110

Answer

1111111

Question 11

A technician is troubleshooting a computer that will not power on. Which of the following should be checked FIRST?

Accepted Answer

Whether the power cable is plugged in. The most fundamental requirement for a computer to power on is a stable electrical connection. Checking whether the power cable is plugged in is the first step in the troubleshooting methodology because it eliminates the simplest and most common cause of a no-power condition before moving to more complex diagnostics. Without verifying the power source, any other troubleshooting is premature.

Answer

The network connection

Answer

The operating system version

Answer

The amount of free disk space

Question 12

A developer is working on a new feature and creates a copy of the main codebase to work in isolation. Later, this copy is merged back into the main branch. Which version control concept describes this copy?

Accepted Answer

Branch. A branch is an independent line of development created from a point in the main codebase so a developer can work in isolation without affecting the main line. When the feature is complete, the branch is merged back into the main branch. This matches the scenario exactly: a copy of the codebase used for isolated work that is later integrated.

Answer

Merge

Answer

Commit

Answer

Pull request

Question 13

You are a support technician for a small company. An employee reports that their desktop computer will not turn on. You have verified that the power cable is securely connected to both the computer and the wall outlet. When you press the power button, you hear a faint clicking sound but the computer does not start. The power supply fan does not spin, and there are no lights on the motherboard. You have tested the wall outlet with a known working device and it provides power. What is the most likely cause of the issue?

Accepted Answer

The power supply is faulty.. The symptoms—faint clicking sound, no fan spin, no motherboard lights, and confirmed wall outlet power—strongly indicate a power supply failure. The clicking sound often comes from a relay or overload protection circuit inside the PSU attempting to start but failing due to internal component damage or short circuit. A faulty power supply cannot deliver the necessary voltages (e.g., +3.3V, +5V, +12V) to power the system, explaining the complete lack of activity.

Answer

The CPU is overheated.

Answer

The power button is not connected properly.

Answer

The motherboard has failed.

Question 14

A hospital's IT team manages a virtualized server hosting a patient records database. The server has one physical processor with 6 cores, 32 GB of RAM, and a RAID 5 array of three 1 TB HDDs. The virtual machine (VM) running the database is configured with 2 vCPUs, 8 GB RAM, and a 500 GB virtual disk stored on the RAID array. Users report that database queries are taking much longer than usual. The host server shows CPU utilization at 20%, memory at 60%, and the disk queue length frequently stays above 5. Which of the following is the most likely cause of the performance issue?

Accepted Answer

Disk I/O bottleneck. The disk queue length consistently exceeding 5 indicates that I/O requests are waiting for the storage subsystem, which is a classic sign of a disk I/O bottleneck. The RAID 5 array of three 1 TB HDDs provides limited IOPS compared to SSDs, and the single virtual disk on this array cannot keep up with the database workload. Even though CPU and memory utilization are moderate, the high queue length shows the disks are the limiting factor.

Answer

Network bandwidth limitation

Answer

Insufficient memory

Answer

Insufficient CPU resources

Question 15

A user reports that their computer is running slowly. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

Running too many applications simultaneously. When too many applications are running simultaneously, the computer's RAM and CPU resources become oversubscribed, forcing the operating system to rely heavily on virtual memory (paging to disk). This causes excessive disk I/O and context switching, which directly degrades system responsiveness and leads to the perception of slowness.

Answer

The monitor is too small

Answer

The keyboard is unresponsive

Answer

The mouse needs batteries

Question 16

A system administrator needs to automatically assign IP addresses to devices on the network. Which protocol should be configured on the server?

Accepted Answer

DHCP. The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is the correct protocol because it is specifically designed to automatically assign IP addresses and other network configuration parameters (such as subnet mask, default gateway, and DNS servers) to devices on a network. A DHCP server maintains a pool of available addresses and leases them to clients, eliminating the need for manual static IP configuration.

Answer

DNS

Answer

ICMP

Answer

ARP

Question 17

A small business needs to share files among employees within the same building. Which network topology is most efficient for this scenario?

Accepted Answer

Star. The star topology is most efficient for this scenario because all employee workstations connect to a central switch, which provides dedicated bandwidth per connection and simplifies troubleshooting. In a small office, the star topology allows easy addition or removal of devices without disrupting the network, and the central switch can manage traffic efficiently using MAC address tables.

Answer

Ring

Answer

Bus

Answer

Mesh

Question 18

A web developer wants to identify why a web page is loading slowly. Which built-in browser tool is most appropriate to analyze network requests?

Accepted Answer

Developer Tools. Developer Tools (F12) include a Network tab that captures all HTTP/HTTPS requests made by the page, showing timing details (DNS lookup, TCP handshake, TLS negotiation, time to first byte, content download) and response sizes. This allows the developer to pinpoint slow resources, such as large images, unoptimized scripts, or server delays, making it the correct tool for analyzing network performance.

Answer

Password manager

Answer

Download manager

Answer

Bookmark manager

Question 19

A technician is diagnosing performance issues in a wireless network. Users report intermittent slowdowns. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

Interference from neighboring networks. Intermittent slowdowns in a wireless network are most commonly caused by co-channel or adjacent-channel interference from neighboring networks. Wi-Fi operates on shared, unlicensed spectrum (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz), and overlapping channels or high utilization from nearby access points force stations to wait for clear channel access, causing latency spikes and throughput drops. WPA2 encryption overhead is negligible for modern hardware, and weak signal or incorrect channel width would typically cause consistent, not intermittent, issues.

Answer

WPA2 encryption overhead

Answer

Weak signal from the access point

Answer

Incorrect channel width setting

Question 20

A developer is writing a program that stores a collection of unique student IDs. The program needs to quickly look up a student by ID and does not require the IDs to be stored in any particular order. Which data structure is most appropriate for this task?

Accepted Answer

Dictionary. A dictionary (hash map) stores key-value pairs and provides average O(1) lookup by key, which is ideal for quickly retrieving a student record by unique ID. Since the IDs are unique and order does not matter, a dictionary's key uniqueness constraint and fast lookup make it the best fit. Arrays and other sequential structures would require O(n) search unless indexed by a contiguous integer range.

Answer

Queue

Answer

Array

Answer

Stack