Drag and drop the syslog severity levels on the left to their corresponding names and meanings on the right.
Drag a concept onto its matching description — or click a concept then click the description.
Emergency – system is unusable
Alert – immediate action needed
Critical – critical condition
Error – error condition
Warning – warning condition
⚠ Common exam trap
Remember that lower severity numbers indicate higher urgency. The exam expects you to know the order and descriptions of levels 0-3 precisely.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Level 0 – Emergency: System is unusable
All four options correctly match syslog severity levels 0-3 with their descriptions. Levels 0 (Emergency), 1 (Alert), 2 (Critical), and 3 (Error) are the highest severity levels.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Level 0 – Emergency: System is unusable
Why this is correct
Syslog severity Level 0 (Emergency) is the highest and most critical severity, indicating that the system is completely unusable and cannot perform any functions. In Cisco IOS, this level is reserved for catastrophic events such as a kernel panic, total loss of a routing process, or a hardware failure that halts operation entirely. Because it represents a total failure, messages at this level are typically broadcast to all logging destinations and require immediate human intervention to restore functionality.
Level 1 – Alert: Immediate action needed
Why this is correct
Level 1 (Alert) is the second-highest severity, right below Emergency, and it indicates a condition that requires immediate action, such as a critical process repeatedly failing or a security breach that could disrupt operations. However, the description in the question, "System is unusable," belongs exclusively to Level 0, not to Level 1. The system may still be operational at Level 1, albeit in a degraded or dangerous state, so this option does not match the stated severity definition.
Level 2 – Critical: Critical conditions
Why this is correct
Level 2 (Critical) indicates severe conditions that need immediate notice, such as a backup process failure, a hardware component warning, or a routing protocol adjacency loss, but the system itself may still be functional. The description "Immediate action needed" actually belongs to Level 1 (Alert), not Level 2. Since the question's description is for Emergency (Level 0), choosing Critical is incorrect; Critical is less severe than Alert and far less severe than Emergency.
Level 3 – Error: Error conditions
Why this is correct
Level 3 (Error) is used for error conditions that indicate a problem within the system, such as a failed configuration command, a packet drop due to a missing route, or a duplicate IP address detected on an interface. These errors may affect normal operation but they do not render the system unusable and they are not considered "critical conditions" in the syslog hierarchy. The description "Critical conditions" specifically corresponds to Level 2, so this option is incorrect because it misidentifies the severity level.
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About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every 200-301 question from scratch — 1,389 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 200-301 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Cisco certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 200-301 exam.