350-501 · domain
Automation and Quality of Services
Practise Cisco SPCOR / CCNP Service Provider Core 350-501 Automation and Quality of Services 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 Quality of Services
Automation and Quality of Services 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 Quality of Services 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 Quality of Services questions (89)
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What is the primary function of the NED (Network Element Driver) in NSO?
Easy2A service provider is implementing hierarchical QoS on an edge router. The goal is to shape the aggregate traffic to 100 Mbps and then apply different queuing policies for voice and data within that shaped pipe. Which configuration approach is correct?
Medium3Which MPLS EXP bits value is typically mapped from DSCP EF at the ingress PE to maintain voice QoS in an MPLS network?
Medium4Which DSCP value is recommended for Expedited Forwarding (EF) per-hop behavior, commonly used for voice traffic?
Easy5An SP network engineer is reviewing a QoS configuration on a PE router. The policy-map uses a class for voice with the 'priority' command, and a class for video with 'bandwidth remaining percent 30'. What is the purpose of the 'bandwidth remaining percent' command?
Medium6In an SP MPLS core, a PE router maps incoming DSCP values to MPLS EXP bits. Which statement about EXP marking is accurate when using the DiffServ Tunneling Model?
Hard7An SP is designing a QoS policy for a customer with voice, video, and data traffic. Which queuing mechanism provides a strict priority queue for voice while ensuring other queues do not starve?
Medium8When using NETCONF to edit a running configuration on a Cisco IOS XR router, which sequence of operations is correct?
Medium9An SP uses NSO for automation. Which TWO protocols can NSO use as southbound interfaces to communicate with network devices? (Choose two.)
Medium10A service provider wants to use NETCONF to manage devices. Which two statements are true about NETCONF operations? (Choose two.)
Medium11An engineer configures a class-map to match traffic with DSCP AF41. What is the numerical DSCP value for AF41?
Medium12Which DSCP value is used for voice traffic (EF) in the DiffServ model?
Easy13An SP engineer is using YANG to model a service. Which statement correctly describes the use of a 'leafref' type?
Medium14Which DSCP value corresponds to Best Effort (DF) per-hop behavior?
Easy15Which THREE DSCP values are part of the Assured Forwarding (AF) class 4? (Select three.)
Easy16What is the main difference between traffic shaping and traffic policing?
Easy17An SP engineer is configuring QoS on a PE router for MPLS traffic. The core network uses MPLS EXP bits for QoS. Which TWO methods can be used to set MPLS EXP bits based on IP DSCP? (Select two.)
Medium18An SP engineer is configuring hierarchical QoS on a PE router for a subscriber with a 10 Mbps shaped rate. The child policy must guarantee 2 Mbps for voice, 4 Mbps for video, and the rest for data. However, the parent policy shape rate is 10 Mbps. Which configuration ensures proper operation?
Hard19An SP is deploying a Network Services Orchestrator (NSO) for service automation. Which THREE components are integral to NSO architecture? (Select three.)
Hard20Which NETCONF RPC is used to retrieve the complete running configuration from a network device?
Medium21An SP is implementing DiffServ at the edge router. Which TWO DSCP values are used for AF41 and AF31, respectively? (Choose two.)
Medium22Which component in MQC is used to classify traffic based on match criteria?
Easy23An SP engineer is implementing LLQ on a PE router to prioritize voice. Which additional configuration is recommended to prevent voice traffic from starving other queues?
Medium24Which three mechanisms are used within the DiffServ model to provide QoS in an SP network? (Choose three.)
Hard25In a CBWFQ policy with LLQ, which statement is true regarding the bandwidth command for non-priority classes?
Hard26In the context of YANG modeling for network automation, which statement about 'must' expressions is true?
Medium27What is the primary difference between traffic policing and traffic shaping?
Easy28Which congestion avoidance mechanism is used to prevent tail drop by selectively dropping packets from lower-priority flows before the queue becomes full?
Medium29In the DiffServ model, which per-hop behavior (PHB) is associated with the AF31 DSCP value?
Medium30A service provider wants to enforce a hard rate limit of 10 Mbps on a subscriber's traffic, dropping any excess packets. Which QoS mechanism should be used?
Medium31An SP is implementing traffic shaping on an MPLS PE-CE link. Which TWO statements are true about shaping compared to policing? (Select two.)
Medium32Which TWO statements correctly describe the DiffServ model? (Choose two.)
Medium33An SP network operator needs to ensure that voice traffic always gets priority access to the output link. Which queuing mechanism is designed to provide a strict priority queue while preventing starvation of other queues?
Medium34Which RESTCONF HTTP method is used to create a new data resource?
Medium35An SP is designing MQC policies. Which THREE statements about MQC are true? (Choose three.)
Hard36Which THREE of the following are standard per-hop behaviors (PHBs) in the DiffServ model? (Select three.)
Easy37In the context of MPLS QoS, at which point are EXP bits typically set based on the DSCP value of the IP packet?
Easy38An SP is deploying SR-TE policies using PCEP. What is the role of the SR-PCE in this architecture?
Medium39What is the primary difference between traffic shaping and policing in a QoS implementation?
Medium40An SP router is configured with CBWFQ. For a data class requiring 30% bandwidth guarantee, which command is correct in the policy-map?
Medium41Which three components are part of NSO (Network Services Orchestrator) architecture? (Choose three.)
Hard42An SP uses traffic policing and shaping to manage bandwidth. Which statement best describes the difference between the two mechanisms?
Medium43Which TWO methods can RESTCONF use to create a new data resource? (Choose two.)
Medium44Which two statements correctly describe the use of DSCP values in the DiffServ model? (Choose two.)
Medium45An SP uses NSO for service orchestration. A new service requires YANG data validation to ensure that the 'bandwidth' leaf does not exceed 10000 kbps when the 'service-type' is 'premium'. Which YANG statement is appropriate?
Hard46An SP is using MQC to configure QoS on a core router. Which TWO statements about MQC are correct? (Select two.)
Medium47An SP is deploying SR-TE policies using a central controller. The controller needs to compute paths based on bandwidth and latency constraints. Which protocol is used between the controller and the routers to signal the SR-TE policies?
Hard48Which protocol is used by NSO to communicate with network devices for configuration management?
Easy49Which two mechanisms are used for congestion avoidance in a QoS policy? (Choose two.)
Medium50An SP uses SR-PCE for traffic engineering. Which protocol does the SR-PCE use to communicate path computation requests and responses with path computation clients (PCCs)?
Hard51In MPLS networks, the EXP bits are used for QoS. How are the 3-bit EXP values typically derived from DSCP markings at the ingress PE router?
Medium52In the context of SR-PCE, which protocol does the PCE use to communicate with the path computation client (PCC) to set up SR-TE policies?
Medium53In SP automation, which protocol is used by NSO to communicate with network devices for configuration management?
Medium54An SP uses NSO with a YANG service model to provision L3VPNs. Which database in NSO stores the configuration and state for all managed devices?
Hard55A service provider is designing a QoS policy for a business VPN service that carries voice, video, and data. The policy must ensure that voice (EF) is never dropped even during congestion, while video (AF41) and data (AF21) share the remaining bandwidth in a ratio 2:1. Which queuing strategy should be used?
Medium56An SP engineer is designing a QoS policy for a customer with three traffic classes: voice (priority), premium data (bandwidth guarantee), and best effort. The total bandwidth is 10 Mbps, with voice limited to 1 Mbps, premium data to 4 Mbps, and best effort to the remaining. Which policy-map configuration correctly uses LLQ and CBWFQ?
Hard57In the MQC (Modular QoS CLI) framework, which component is used to match traffic based on DSCP values?
Easy58A service provider is implementing QoS for voice traffic using the DiffServ model. Which DSCP value should be assigned to voice packets to ensure the highest priority treatment?
Easy59An SP is designing a QoS policy for a customer VPN that carries voice, video conferencing, and bulk data. The voice traffic requires low latency, video conferencing requires assured bandwidth, and bulk data should use any remaining bandwidth. Which queuing strategy should be applied on the PE-CE link?
Medium60An SP network experiences congestion on a core link. The QoS policy uses CBWFQ with classes for voice (LLQ), video (bandwidth 30%), and data (bandwidth 50%). During congestion, voice traffic spikes to 25% of the link. What happens to video and data traffic?
Hard61Which RESTCONF HTTP method should be used to replace the entire configuration of a device interface?
Medium62In NSO, which statement best describes the function of the CDB (Configuration Database)?
Hard63Which THREE statements are true regarding NSO's NED? (Choose three.)
Hard64Which NETCONF operation is used to retrieve the entire running configuration from a network device?
Easy65An SP engineer is configuring a policy-map to implement hierarchical QoS. Which two statements are correct when using MQC for hierarchical QoS? (Choose two.)
Medium66When automating service provisioning with NSO, which three components are part of the NSO architecture? (Choose three.)
Hard67An SP engineer is configuring hierarchical QoS on a PE router. The parent policy shapes the traffic to 10 Mbps, and the child policy applies LLQ for voice and CBWFQ for data. What is the primary purpose of using policing within the LLQ child policy?
Medium68An SP engineer is configuring hierarchical QoS on a PE router to enforce a per-subscriber bandwidth contract of 10 Mbps and prioritize voice within that contract. Which MQC configuration sequence is correct?
Medium69An SP network engineer needs to implement hierarchical QoS on a PE router to shape customer traffic to a contracted rate of 10 Mbps while providing priority for voice traffic and bandwidth guarantee for critical data. Which MQC configuration correctly achieves this?
Hard70An SP network uses NSO for service orchestration. Which component in NSO provides the abstraction layer to communicate with different device types using protocols like NETCONF or CLI?
Medium71In an SP network using NSO for service orchestration, which component abstracts device-specific CLI or SNMP interactions into a common model for NETCONF/RESTCONF southbound communication?
Hard72In the DiffServ model, which DSCP value is used for Voice over IP (VoIP) traffic to ensure Expedited Forwarding (EF) per-hop behavior?
Easy73In SR-PCE architecture, which protocol is used for communication between the Path Computation Element (PCE) and the Path Computation Client (PCC) to request and report SR-TE paths?
Hard74Which MQC component is used to match traffic based on criteria such as DSCP or IP precedence?
Easy75An SP uses NSO to orchestrate MPLS L3VPN services. The service model is written in YANG, and the NED communicates with the PE routers. Which protocol does NSO use to push configuration to the network devices?
Medium76In the DiffServ model, which field is used in the IP header to mark packets for QoS treatment?
Easy77In the Modular QoS CLI (MQC), which component is used to define traffic classes based on match criteria?
Easy78An SP engineer is designing a QoS policy for a business customer with three traffic classes: Voice (critical latency), Transactional Data (low delay), and Bulk Data (no strict requirements). The link is 100 Mbps. Which TWO actions should be part of the policy? (Select two.)
Medium79An SP uses NSO with a YANG service model to provision an L3VPN. The service model references a leafref to a VPN ID that must exist in a separate list. Which YANG statement ensures the leafref value is valid against the referenced list?
Hard80In the DiffServ model, which DSCP value is used for Expedited Forwarding (EF) to support voice traffic?
Easy81In SR-TE PCE, which protocol does the PCE use to communicate with the PCC (Path Computation Client) to set up LSPs?
Hard82Which DSCP value is recommended for Expedited Forwarding (EF) per-hop behavior, commonly used for voice traffic?
Easy83A service provider is deploying a QoS policy for a customer with voice, mission-critical data, and best-effort traffic. The voice requires strict priority and low latency. Which queuing mechanism should be used to ensure voice packets are always served before other queues, and what additional measure is necessary to prevent voice traffic from starving other traffic?
Medium84An SP is deploying SR-PCE for centralized traffic engineering. Which THREE functions does the PCE perform? (Select three.)
Hard85In a hierarchical QoS policy, the parent policy shapes to 20 Mbps. The child policy has a class for voice with priority and police rate 2 Mbps, and a class for data with bandwidth 10 Mbps. What is the maximum bandwidth voice traffic can consume under congestion?
Hard86In a hierarchical QoS policy applied to a subscriber aggregation interface, the parent policy shapes to 100 Mbps and the child policy allocates 50% bandwidth to voice and 50% to data. If voice traffic exceeds 50 Mbps, what happens to the excess?
Hard87Which YANG data modeling construct is used to restrict a leaf value to be a reference to another leaf in the data tree?
Medium88When DSCP markings are mapped to MPLS EXP bits at the ingress PE router, how many EXP values are available for traffic differentiation in the MPLS core?
Easy89An SP engineer is implementing DSCP classification at the edge. Which two AF classes are typically used for mission-critical data? (Choose two.)
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Frequently asked questions
- What does the Automation and Quality of Services domain cover on the 350-501 exam?
- Automation and Quality of Services 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 89 Automation and Quality of Services 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.
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