350-601 Network Practice Question
A network engineer is designing a spine-leaf fabric with oversubscription ratio of 3:1. Each leaf switch uses 40 Gbps uplinks to the spine and has 48 x 10 Gbps server ports. How many spine links are needed per leaf to achieve the target oversubscription?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the ability to correctly compute oversubscription by dividing server bandwidth by uplink bandwidth, not the other way around, and candidates may mistakenly multiply or invert the ratio.
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
✓
4
The oversubscription ratio is the ratio of server-facing bandwidth to spine-facing bandwidth. Each leaf has 48 x 10 Gbps = 480 Gbps of server-facing capacity. To achieve a 3:1 oversubscription ratio, the spine-facing bandwidth must be 480 Gbps / 3 = 160 Gbps. Since each uplink is 40 Gbps, you need 160 / 40 = 4 spine links per leaf.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
3
Why it's wrong here
3 uplinks give 120 Gbps, oversubscription would be 4:1.
- ✓
4
Why this is correct
4 uplinks give 160 Gbps, oversubscription = 480/160 = 3:1.
- ✗
2
Why it's wrong here
2 uplinks give 80 Gbps, oversubscription would be 6:1.
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5
Why it's wrong here
5 uplinks give 200 Gbps, oversubscription would be 2.4:1.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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