350-401 · topic practice

VLANs and Trunking practice questions

Practise 350-401 VLAN and trunking questions covering access ports, trunk ports, allowed VLAN lists, native VLAN, inter-VLAN routing, and command-output troubleshooting.

Courseiva uses original exam-style practice questions designed for learning and revision. The goal is to understand the concepts, recognise exam patterns, and improve through explanations — not memorise copied exam dumps.

Reviewed byJohnson Ajibi· MSc IT Security
20 questionsDomain: VLANs and Trunking

What the exam tests

What to know about VLANs and Trunking

VLAN and trunking questions usually test whether the VLAN exists, whether the trunk is active and whether the VLAN is allowed across the link.

Access ports, trunk ports and native VLAN behaviour.

Allowed VLAN lists and trunk verification.

How to read show vlan brief and show interfaces trunk output.

Why hosts in the same VLAN may fail across switches.

Why learners struggle

Why VLANs and Trunking questions are commonly missed

VLAN questions are commonly missed because learners assume a VLAN configured on one switch exists everywhere, or that a trunk being active means all VLANs are allowed. The real problem is usually in the details: VLAN membership, allowed VLAN lists, native VLAN, or inter-VLAN routing setup.

  • ·A VLAN must exist on both switches — configuring it on one switch is not enough
  • ·A trunk being active does not mean the VLAN appears in the allowed VLAN list
  • ·Native VLAN mismatch causes unexpected untagged traffic forwarding between switches
  • ·Access port vs trunk port — wrong mode silently blocks all traffic for other VLANs
  • ·Inter-VLAN routing requires a router-on-a-stick or Layer 3 switch SVI
  • ·show vlan brief and show interfaces trunk reveal different pieces of the puzzle

Watch out for

Common VLANs and Trunking exam traps

  • A VLAN can exist on one switch but not another.
  • A trunk can be active while still blocking a specific VLAN.
  • Native VLAN mismatch can create confusing symptoms.
  • A wrong access VLAN can look like a routing issue.

Practice set

VLANs and Trunking questions

20 questions · select your answer, then reveal the explanation

Question 1mediummultiple choice
Open the full VLAN trunking answer →

A network engineer is troubleshooting a connectivity issue between two switches, SW1 and SW2, connected via a trunk link. SW1 is a Cisco Catalyst 3850 running IOS-XE, and SW2 is a Cisco Catalyst 2960 running IOS. The trunk is configured as a dynamic desirable mode on SW1 and dynamic auto on SW2. The engineer notices that the trunk is not forming. What is the most likely cause?

Question 2mediummultiple choice
Open the full VLAN trunking answer →

An engineer is configuring a new access switch for a branch office. The switch must support multiple VLANs for different departments: VLAN 10 (Engineering), VLAN 20 (Sales), and VLAN 30 (Management). The uplink to the distribution switch is a trunk. The engineer wants to ensure that only the required VLANs are allowed on the trunk and that the native VLAN is changed from the default to VLAN 99 for security reasons. Which configuration commands should the engineer apply on the access switch's uplink interface?

Question 3hardmultiple choice
Open the full VLAN trunking answer →

A network engineer is deploying a new server farm with multiple servers connected to a Cisco Nexus 9000 switch. Each server is dual-homed to two separate access switches for redundancy. The servers are configured with NIC teaming in active-standby mode. The engineer wants to ensure that if the active link fails, traffic continues without interruption. The access switches are connected to each other via a trunk. Which technology should the engineer implement on the access switches to prevent loops and allow both uplinks to be active?

Question 4mediummultiple choice
Open the full VLAN trunking answer →

An engineer is troubleshooting a problem where a host in VLAN 20 cannot communicate with a host in VLAN 30, even though both are connected to the same access switch. The access switch is configured with VLANs 20 and 30, and the uplink to the distribution switch is a trunk that allows both VLANs. The distribution switch has SVIs for both VLANs and IP routing is enabled. The engineer verifies that the trunk is up and both VLANs are allowed. What is the most likely cause of the communication failure?

Question 5easymultiple choice
Open the full VLAN trunking answer →

A network engineer is configuring a new Cisco Catalyst 9300 switch to connect to an existing network. The uplink to the core switch is configured as a trunk. The engineer wants to ensure that all VLANs except VLAN 1 are allowed on the trunk, and that the native VLAN is set to VLAN 999. Which configuration should the engineer apply on the uplink interface?

Question 6hardmultiple choice
Open the full VLAN trunking answer →

An engineer is troubleshooting a connectivity issue between two switches, SW1 and SW2, connected via a trunk. The trunk is configured with switchport mode trunk on both sides. The engineer notices that some VLANs are not passing traffic, even though they are in the allowed list. The output of 'show interfaces trunk' on SW1 shows that VLANs 10, 20, and 30 are in the allowed list and are active. However, hosts in VLAN 30 cannot reach the distribution switch. What is the most likely cause?

Question 7easymultiple choice
Open the full VLAN trunking answer →

A network engineer is configuring a new Cisco Catalyst switch to connect to an existing network. The uplink to the distribution switch is configured as a trunk. The engineer wants to ensure that the trunk uses 802.1Q encapsulation and that the native VLAN is set to VLAN 100. The distribution switch is a Cisco Catalyst 3850. Which configuration should the engineer apply on the uplink interface?

Question 8mediummultiple choice
Open the full VLAN trunking answer →

An engineer is troubleshooting a problem where a trunk link between two Cisco switches is not passing traffic for VLAN 10, but other VLANs are working. The trunk is configured with switchport mode trunk on both sides. The engineer checks the allowed VLAN list and sees VLAN 10 is included. The native VLAN is set to 1 on both sides. What is the most likely cause?

Question 9hardmultiple choice
Open the full VLAN trunking answer →

A network engineer is configuring a new Cisco Nexus 9000 switch to connect to an existing Cisco Catalyst 3850 switch. The link between them should be a trunk carrying VLANs 10, 20, and 30. The engineer configures the Nexus switch with 'switchport mode trunk' and 'switchport trunk allowed vlan 10,20,30'. However, the trunk does not come up. The Catalyst switch is configured with 'switchport mode trunk' and 'switchport trunk allowed vlan 10,20,30'. What is the most likely cause?

Question 10mediummultiple choice
Open the full VLAN trunking answer →

A network engineer runs the following command on Switch SW1:

SW1# show vlan brief

VLAN Name                             Status    Ports

---- -------------------------------- --------- ------------------------------- 1 default active Gi0/1, Gi0/2, Gi0/3 10 Sales active Gi0/4, Gi0/5 20 Engineering active Gi0/6, Gi0/7 1002 fddi-default act/unsup 1003 token-ring-default act/unsup 1004 fddinet-default act/unsup 1005 trnet-default act/unsup

Based on this output, what can be concluded?

Question 11hardmultiple choice
Open the full VLAN trunking answer →

A network engineer runs the following command on Switch SW1:

SW1# show interfaces trunk

Port Mode Encapsulation Status Native vlan Gi0/1 on 802.1q trunking 1 Gi0/2 on 802.1q trunking 1

Port Vlans allowed on trunk Gi0/1 1-1005 Gi0/2 1-1005

Port Vlans allowed and active in management domain Gi0/1 1,10,20 Gi0/2 1,10,20

Port Vlans in spanning tree forwarding state and not pruned Gi0/1 1,10,20 Gi0/2 1,10,20

Based on this output, what can be concluded?

Question 12mediummultiple choice
Open the full VLAN trunking answer →

A network engineer runs the following command on Switch SW1:

SW1# show interfaces gi0/1 switchport

Name: Gi0/1

Switchport: Enabled

Administrative Mode: trunk Operational Mode: trunk Administrative Trunking Encapsulation: dot1q Operational Trunking Encapsulation: dot1q Negotiation of Trunking: On Access Mode VLAN: 1 (default) Trunking Native Mode VLAN: 1 (default) Administrative Native VLAN tagging: enabled Voice VLAN: none Administrative private-vlan host-association: none Administrative private-vlan mapping: none Administrative private-vlan trunk native VLAN: none Administrative private-vlan trunk Native VLAN tagging: enabled Administrative private-vlan trunk encapsulation: dot1q Administrative private-vlan trunk normal VLANs: none Administrative private-vlan trunk private VLANs: none Operational private-vlan: none Trunking VLANs Enabled: ALL Pruning VLANs Enabled: 2-1001 Capture Mode Disabled Capture VLANs Allowed: ALL

Based on this output, what can be concluded?

Question 13hardmultiple choice
Open the full VLAN trunking answer →

A network engineer runs the following command on Switch SW1:

SW1# show spanning-tree vlan 10

VLAN0010 Spanning tree enabled protocol ieee Root ID Priority 32778 Address 0011.2233.4455 This bridge is the root Hello Time 2 sec Max Age 20 sec Forward Delay 15 sec

Bridge ID Priority 32778 (priority 32768 sys-id-ext 10) Address 0011.2233.4455 Hello Time 2 sec Max Age 20 sec Forward Delay 15 sec Aging Time 300 sec

Interface        Role Sts Cost      Prio.Nbr Type

---------------- ---- --- --------- -------- -------------------------------- Gi0/1 Desg FWD 4 128.1 P2p Gi0/2 Desg FWD 4 128.2 P2p Gi0/3 Desg FWD 4 128.3 P2p

Based on this output, what can be concluded?

Question 14mediummultiple choice
Open the full VLAN trunking answer →

A network engineer runs the following command on Switch SW1:

SW1# show etherchannel summary

Flags: D - down P - bundled in port-channel I - stand-alone s - suspended H - Hot-standby (LACP only) R - Layer3 S - Layer2 U - in use N - not in use, no aggregation f - failed to allocate aggregator

M - not in use, minimum links not met u - unsuitable for bundling w - waiting to be aggregated d - default port

Number of channel-groups in use: 1 Number of aggregators: 1

Group Port-channel Protocol Ports ------+-------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------- 1 Po1(SU) LACP Gi0/1(P) Gi0/2(P) Gi0/3(D)

Based on this output, what can be concluded?

Question 15hardmultiple choice
Open the full VLAN trunking answer →

A network engineer runs the following command on Switch SW1:

SW1# show vlan id 10

VLAN ID: 10
VLAN Name: Sales
VLAN Type: Ethernet
VLAN State: active

MTU: 1500

Remote SPAN VLAN: No

Primary VLAN ID: 10

Private VLAN Type: Primary

Associated Secondary VLAN IDs: 100, 200

Based on this output, what can be concluded?

Question 16mediummultiple choice
Open the full VLAN trunking answer →

A network engineer runs the following command on Switch SW1:

SW1# show interfaces gi0/1 trunk

Port Mode Encapsulation Status Native vlan Gi0/1 desirable n-802.1q trunking 1

Port Vlans allowed on trunk Gi0/1 1-1005

Port Vlans allowed and active in management domain Gi0/1 1,10,20

Port Vlans in spanning tree forwarding state and not pruned Gi0/1 1,10,20

Based on this output, what can be concluded?

Question 17mediummultiple choice
Open the full VLAN trunking answer →

A network engineer runs the following command on Switch SW1:

SW1# show dtp interface gi0/1

DTP information on GigabitEthernet0/1: DTP: Enabled DTP mode: Desirable DTP negotiate: TRUE DTP status: Trunk DTP trunk status: Trunking DTP timer: 30 DTP max-age: 2 DTP encapsulation: 802.1q DTP refresh rate: Both DTP requests: 10 DTP errors: 0

Based on this output, what can be concluded?

Question 18hardmultiple choice
Open the full VLAN trunking answer →

A network engineer runs the following command on Switch SW1:

SW1# show interfaces gi0/1 trunk

Port Mode Encapsulation Status Native vlan Gi0/1 on 802.1q trunking 1

Port Vlans allowed on trunk Gi0/1 10,20

Port Vlans allowed and active in management domain Gi0/1 10,20

Port Vlans in spanning tree forwarding state and not pruned Gi0/1 10,20

Based on this output, what can be concluded?

Question 19mediummultiple choice
Open the full VLAN trunking answer →

Given the following configuration on a Cisco IOS-XE switch:

interface GigabitEthernet0/1
 switchport mode trunk
 switchport trunk native vlan 999
 switchport trunk allowed vlan 10,20,30

What is the effect of this configuration?

Question 20mediummultiple choice
Open the full VLAN trunking answer →

Examine the following configuration snippet on a Cisco IOS switch:

interface GigabitEthernet0/2
 switchport mode access
 switchport access vlan 50
 spanning-tree portfast

Which statement is true about this interface?

Free account

Track your progress over time

Create a free account to save your results and see which topics improve across sessions.

Focused VLANs and Trunking sessions

Start a VLANs and Trunking only practice session

Every question in these sessions is drawn from the VLANs and Trunking domain — nothing else.

Related practice questions

Related 350-401 topic practice pages

Move into related areas when this topic feels solid.

Frequently asked questions

What does the 350-401 exam test about VLANs and Trunking?
VLAN and trunking questions usually test whether the VLAN exists, whether the trunk is active and whether the VLAN is allowed across the link.
How should I use these practice questions?
Select your answer before revealing the explanation. Then read why each option is right or wrong — this active recall approach builds retention far faster than re-reading notes.
Can I practise just VLANs and Trunking questions in a focused session?
Yes — the session launcher on this page draws every question from the VLANs and Trunking domain. Use a 10-question session first to gauge your baseline, then move to 20 or 30 once the weak spots are clear.
Where can I practise other 350-401 topics?
Use the topic links above to move to related areas, or go back to the 350-401 question bank to see all topics.
Are these real exam questions or dumps?
These are original practice questions written to test the same concepts the 350-401 exam covers. They are not copied from any real exam or dump site.