CCNP Infrastructure Practice Question
A network engineer is implementing a REST API script to retrieve interface statistics from a Cisco IOS XE device. The engineer wants to use the most efficient method that supports HTTP/2 and streaming telemetry. Which API should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that RESTCONF or NETCONF can handle streaming telemetry, but they are not designed for high-frequency streaming; gRPC is the protocol for that.
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
✓
gRPC
gRPC is the only option that natively uses HTTP/2 and supports streaming telemetry. It is designed for efficient, high-performance telemetry collection from Cisco IOS XE devices. NETCONF and RESTCONF are not optimized for streaming, and SNMPv3 is a polling protocol. Therefore, gRPC is the correct choice.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
NETCONF over SSH
Why it's wrong here
NETCONF over SSH uses SSH as transport and XML for encoding, but it does not support HTTP/2 or streaming telemetry natively. It is a configuration and state retrieval protocol, but for streaming telemetry and HTTP/2, gRPC is preferred. NETCONF is more suited for transactional configuration changes and does not provide the efficiency of gRPC for telemetry.
- ✗
SNMPv3
Why it's wrong here
SNMPv3 provides secure access to device statistics but uses UDP and is not designed for HTTP/2 or streaming telemetry. It relies on polling, which is less efficient than streaming. While SNMPv3 is still used, it does not meet the requirement for HTTP/2 and streaming telemetry.
- ✗
RESTCONF
Why it's wrong here
RESTCONF uses HTTP methods and supports JSON or XML, but it does not natively support HTTP/2 or streaming telemetry. It is designed for RESTful access to YANG data, but streaming telemetry typically uses gRPC. RESTCONF is efficient for CRUD operations but not for high-frequency telemetry streaming.
- ✓
gRPC
Why this is correct
gRPC is a high-performance RPC framework that uses HTTP/2 for transport, supports streaming, and is used for model-driven telemetry on Cisco IOS XE. It allows efficient, real-time streaming of telemetry data and supports bidirectional streaming. This makes it the best choice for retrieving interface statistics with streaming telemetry and HTTP/2 benefits.
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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.