CCNP Automation Practice Question
A network automation team is evaluating RESTCONF as a replacement for CLI scraping on Cisco IOS XE devices. They need to understand the operational characteristics of RESTCONF to design their tooling. Which two statements accurately describe RESTCONF behavior on Cisco IOS XE? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse RESTCONF's transport and encoding with those of NETCONF, leading to incorrect assumptions about SSH usage or mandatory candidate datastores.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
RESTCONF uses HTTP methods such as GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE to manipulate YANG-modeled data.
RESTCONF is a RESTful protocol that uses HTTP methods to manipulate YANG-modeled data and supports both XML and JSON encodings. On Cisco IOS XE, JSON is supported, which is advantageous for modern automation. The other statements are false: candidate datastore is not mandatory, SSH is not the transport, and there is no automatic YANG-to-MIB translation.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
RESTCONF uses HTTP methods such as GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE to manipulate YANG-modeled data.
Why this is correct
RESTCONF is a RESTful protocol that maps CRUD operations to HTTP methods. GET retrieves data, POST creates, PUT replaces, PATCH modifies, and DELETE removes. This aligns with the RESTCONF RFC and is how IOS XE exposes YANG-modeled configuration and state. The team can rely on these standard methods for automation, making this statement accurate and essential for designing tooling.
- ✗
RESTCONF requires a candidate datastore to be enabled before any configuration changes can be made.
Why it's wrong here
RESTCONF can operate directly on the running datastore without a candidate datastore. While candidate datastore support exists in some implementations, it is not a prerequisite for configuration changes. IOS XE allows RESTCONF edits to the running configuration via PUT, POST, or PATCH, so requiring candidate would be incorrect and would unnecessarily complicate automation design.
- ✗
RESTCONF uses SSH as its transport protocol and does not support HTTPS.
Why it's wrong here
RESTCONF uses HTTP or HTTPS as its transport, not SSH. SSH is the transport for NETCONF. RESTCONF's reliance on HTTP methods and headers is fundamental to its RESTful design. Stating that it uses SSH and not HTTPS is technically incorrect and would mislead the team into configuring the wrong access method, potentially causing connectivity failures.
- ✓
RESTCONF messages are encoded in XML or JSON, with JSON support available on Cisco IOS XE.
Why this is correct
RESTCONF supports both XML and JSON encodings. Cisco IOS XE supports JSON encoding for RESTCONF, which is often preferred in automation for its lighter syntax and ease of parsing in languages like Python. The Accept and Content-Type headers determine the format. This flexibility is a key advantage over NETCONF, which uses XML exclusively, and is accurate for IOS XE.
- ✗
RESTCONF automatically translates YANG models into SNMP MIBs for monitoring.
Why it's wrong here
RESTCONF does not translate YANG models into SNMP MIBs. YANG is a data modeling language for NETCONF and RESTCONF, while SNMP uses MIBs. There is no automatic translation mechanism; they are separate management paradigms. This statement confuses the roles of YANG and MIBs and would lead to incorrect assumptions about integration between RESTCONF and SNMP-based monitoring systems.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Cisco exam blueprint
This 350-401 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 350-401 exam.