350-501 · domain
Automation and Assurance
Practise Cisco SPCOR / CCNP Service Provider Core 350-501 Automation and Assurance practice questions — original exam-style scenarios with answer choices, explanations, and analysis of common mistakes.
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What to know about Automation and Assurance
Automation and Assurance questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.
How the topic appears in realistic exam-style scenarios.
Which detail in the question changes the correct answer.
How to eliminate plausible but wrong options.
How to connect the question back to the wider exam objective.
Watch out for
Common Automation and Assurance exam traps
- ▸Answering from memory before reading the full scenario.
- ▸Missing a constraint such as cost, availability, security, scope or command context.
- ▸Choosing a broad answer when the question asks for the most specific fix.
- ▸Ignoring why the wrong options are tempting.
Question index
All Automation and Assurance questions (42)
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An engineer configures model-driven telemetry on a Cisco XR router to send data to a collector. After configuring, the collector receives no data. The engineer verifies that the collector IP and port are reachable. What is the next step to troubleshoot?
Medium2Which tool is used to validate YANG data models against device capabilities and to generate Python bindings for automation scripts?
Easy3A service provider wants to stream interface counters from a Cisco router to a collector using model-driven telemetry. The collector is behind NAT and cannot be reached from the router. Which telemetry model should be used?
Easy4Which THREE technologies or protocols are used to implement automated service provisioning in a Cisco service provider network?
Medium5Refer to the exhibit. An engineer configures IP SLA for UDP jitter. The operation completes successfully, but the customer reports voice quality issues. What should the engineer check next?
Easy6A team uses Ansible to automate configuration of Cisco devices. They want to ensure that configurations are applied only if the device is reachable and the current configuration differs from the intended. Which Ansible module or feature is best suited for this?
Medium7A service provider operates a large MPLS network with Segment Routing (SR) and BGP-LS enabled on all routers. They have deployed a centralized Path Computation Element (PCE) to compute SR-TE policies for optimal traffic engineering. The PCE is configured to receive the network topology via BGP-LS from a route reflector (RR). Recently, the PCE has been unable to compute paths for certain destinations, and logs show that the topology database is missing some links and nodes. The engineer verifies that all routers have BGP-LS configured and are peering with the RR. The RR's BGP table shows the BGP-LS NLRI received from all routers. However, the PCE sees only a subset of the topology. Which action should the engineer take to resolve the issue?
Hard8An automation engineer uses RESTCONF to configure a Cisco ASR 9000 router. When sending a PATCH request to update an interface description, the API returns 404 Not Found. What is the most probable issue?
Medium9You are responsible for network assurance for a Tier-1 ISP that has deployed model-driven telemetry using gNMI with ON_CHANGE subscriptions on all core routers. Recently, the NMS team reported that some BGP route flaps are not being captured in the telemetry data, even though the routers' syslogs show the flaps occurred. The telemetry subscription is for the path '/bgp/neighbors/neighbor/state/messages/received'. The NMS is using a gNMI collector that supports both ON_CHANGE and SAMPLE subscriptions. You suspect the issue is with the subscription configuration. Upon reviewing the router configuration, you see that the telemetry subscription uses the SAMPLE mode instead of ON_CHANGE. What is the most appropriate action to ensure all BGP route flap events are captured?
Hard10A large SP is using model-driven telemetry to collect interface statistics from 5000 routers to a centralized collector. The collector is deployed on two servers with load balancing. Recently, the operations team noticed that some router telemetry streams are missing data for intervals of up to 5 minutes during peak hours. The engineer suspects packet loss between the routers and collector. The routers are sourced from different vendors but all support gRPC dial-out telemetry. The engineer wants to identify which routers are affected. The current configuration uses a single telemetry collector IP with port 5000. What step should the engineer take to isolate the problematic routers?
Hard11A Cisco XR router is configured to stream telemetry via gRPC with TLS. The collector can connect but receives empty data. The telemetry configuration is as follows: sensor-group with 'openconfig-interfaces' paths. What is the likely cause?
Hard12What is the primary benefit of using model-driven telemetry over traditional SNMP polling for network assurance?
Easy13A service provider uses RESTCONF to automate interface configuration. They need to add a new IPv4 address to an existing interface. Which HTTP method and URI should be used?
Medium14Which TWO statements about Cisco NSO (Network Services Orchestrator) are true? (Choose two.)
Hard15Refer to the exhibit. An engineer configured a telemetry subscription to push interface state data to a collector. The subscription shows 'State: Invalid'. What is the most likely cause?
Medium16An SP engineer is configuring model-driven telemetry (MDT) to monitor interface utilization on Cisco routers. The telemetry receiver uses gRPC and is experiencing high CPU load due to excessive subscription data. Which MDT subscription parameter should be adjusted to reduce the data rate without losing critical threshold events?
Hard17You are a network automation engineer for a large service provider. Your team is tasked with automating the provisioning of new MPLS L3VPN services across a multi-vendor environment (Cisco and Juniper). The automation framework uses Ansible with Jinja2 templates and NETCONF as the transport protocol. During a pilot deployment, the automation successfully configures the Cisco devices but fails on Juniper devices with a 'syntax error' when applying the generated XML configuration. The Jinja2 templates are designed to generate Cisco-style configuration. You need to modify the automation to support both vendors. Which approach is most effective?
Medium18Which TWO statements about YANG data models are true? (Choose two.)
Easy19A service provider is deploying a new automation framework using Ansible to configure MPLS VPNs. They need to ensure that the Ansible playbook can handle configuration rollback in case of failure. Which Ansible feature should be used?
Medium20A large SP plans to deploy SR-TE tunnels across the backbone using an SDN controller for path computation. To ensure fast convergence and scalability, which automation approach should be used for tunnel creation?
Hard21Refer to the exhibit. An engineer makes a RESTCONF request to retrieve operational data for all interfaces, but the response shows only one interface. What is the most likely cause?
Hard22A network engineer is using Cisco NSO to create a managed L3VPN service. After deploying the service, the engineer notices that the configuration on the devices is not being updated. What is the most likely cause?
Easy23A network engineer needs to automate configuration of multiple Cisco routers and wants to use a protocol that supports both datastore operations and selective retrieval of configuration. Which protocol should be used?
Easy24A network engineer is automating BGP configuration using the Cisco IOS-XE YANG model. They want to enable the 'always-compare-med' feature under BGP. Which XPath expression correctly targets this leaf?
Hard25A service provider is implementing network automation using YANG data models. They need to ensure that the automation solution supports both configuration and operational state data retrieval. Which NETCONF operation should be used to retrieve operational state data?
Medium26A network engineer at a service provider is using Cisco NSO to automate the provisioning of VLANs on thousands of access devices. The engineer creates a service using a custom YANG model and deploys it to a set of devices. However, the deployment fails with a 'failed to reach devices' error for some devices, while others succeed. The engineer checks device connectivity and confirms all devices are reachable via SSH and NETCONF. The engineer also verifies that the NSO device list is accurate and includes all target devices. What is the most likely cause of the failure?
Medium27An SP customer reports intermittent voice quality issues. The engineer wants to measure jitter and packet loss between two remote sites using Cisco IP SLA. Which IP SLA operation type should be configured?
Easy28A network engineer is troubleshooting a NETCONF session that fails to establish between a controller and a router. The router supports NETCONF over SSH on port 830. The controller can reach the router but the session fails. What is the most likely cause?
Hard29A network architect is designing a model-driven telemetry solution for a large SP network. Which three factors are critical to consider when configuring telemetry subscriptions? (Choose three.)
Hard30Which TWO are possible causes for a NETCONF session failing to establish with a Cisco IOS-XE device?
Hard31Drag and drop the steps to configure a static route on a Cisco IOS router into the correct order.
Medium32A service provider has implemented model-driven telemetry to monitor the health of its core network. The telemetry collector is a single server running a custom application that receives and processes gRPC streams from 200 routers. The collector is experiencing high CPU usage and is falling behind in processing data, causing some telemetry data to be dropped. The engineer decides to offload processing to multiple collectors. The routers support dial-out mode and can be configured with a list of collector IPs. The engineer wants to distribute the load evenly across collectors without manual configuration per router. Which should the engineer implement?
Medium33Refer to the exhibit. A telemetry subscription is configured on an IOS-XR router. The collector at 10.1.1.100 is not receiving data. Which configuration error is present?
Medium34A junior automation engineer is writing a Python script to configure OSPF on a Cisco IOS-XE router using RESTCONF. The script sends a PUT request to update the OSPF configuration but receives a 401 Unauthorized response. The engineer has configured a local user with privilege 15 on the router and enabled restconf. The engineer verified that the router's RESTCONF API is running on port 443. What is the most likely missing element in the script?
Easy35An engineer is using RESTCONF to configure an interface on a Cisco IOS-XE device. The request returns a 400 Bad Request error. What is the most likely cause?
Medium36When automating configuration changes across a large network using a tool like Cisco NSO, what is the best practice to minimize the risk of negative impact?
Hard37Match each multicast protocol to its role.
Medium38A service provider plans to deploy automation using Cisco NSO. Which two benefits does NSO provide for service lifecycle management? (Choose two.)
Medium39A service provider is automating the provisioning of MPLS L3VPNs across multiple devices using NETCONF. During a deployment, the automation script fails with an error indicating that the device does not support the required YANG model. Which action should the engineer take to verify device capabilities?
Medium40Which TWO are benefits of model-driven telemetry over SNMP polling?
Easy41A network operator uses gRPC Network Management Interface (gNMI) to collect telemetry data from routers. They notice that some updates are missing. Which gNMI mode should be used to ensure that all state changes are captured?
Hard42Which THREE components are required for model-driven telemetry with gRPC? (Choose three.)
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Frequently asked questions
- What does the Automation and Assurance domain cover on the 350-501 exam?
- Automation and Assurance questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.
- How many questions are in this domain?
- This page lists all 42 Automation and Assurance questions in the 350-501 question bank. The actual exam draws from this domain proportionally to its weighting in the official exam blueprint.
- What is the best way to practise this domain?
- Start with a short focused session (10 questions) to identify gaps, then work through explanations. Repeat with a longer session once the weak areas feel solid.
- Can I practise only Automation and Assurance questions?
- Yes — the session launcher on this page filters questions to this domain only. Choose any session length for inline explanations and scoring.