350-501 Automation and Quality of Service Practice Question
A customer has a 100 Mbps access link and wants to limit traffic to 95 Mbps with burst allowance up to 100 Mbps. Which QoS action should be applied on the egress interface?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the distinction between policing and shaping, where the trap is that candidates assume shaping is always the answer for rate-limiting on egress, but policing is required when the goal is to enforce a hard burst limit without buffering.
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
✓
police
Police is the correct QoS action because it allows you to enforce a maximum traffic rate (95 Mbps) while permitting bursts up to 100 Mbps, dropping or remarking excess traffic. Unlike shaping, policing does not buffer traffic, so it can enforce a hard limit on egress without introducing delay, which matches the requirement to limit traffic with a burst allowance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
shape
Why it's wrong here
Shaping buffers traffic, not suitable for strict rate limiting with burst allowance.
- ✗
priority
Why it's wrong here
Priority provides strict priority, not rate limiting.
- ✗
bandwidth
Why it's wrong here
Bandwidth command only allocates minimum bandwidth, not a limit.
- ✓
police
Why this is correct
Policing limits the rate and can drop or remark exceeding traffic, allowing bursts.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 350-501 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 350-501 exam.