350-501 Shape command Practice Question
Exhibit
interface GigabitEthernet0/0/0 service-policy input POLICE_IN service-policy output SHAPE_OUT ! policy-map POLICE_IN class VOICE police cir 1000000 ! policy-map SHAPE_OUT class class-default shape average 10000000
Refer to the exhibit. An engineer checks the policy and notices that the policing is not working as expected—traffic is not being dropped even when exceeding 1 Mbps. What could be the issue?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often overlook the interaction between shape and police. While police alone can drop excess traffic, the presence of shape can mask the need for policing by buffering and smoothing traffic, leading to no drops despite the policer being configured.
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
✓
The shape command is interfering with the police command
The shape command can interfere with police by smoothing traffic, which may prevent the policer from seeing bursts that exceed the committed rate. If the shape rate is set higher than the police rate, the policer may not drop traffic because the shaper is already limiting the output to a lower rate. Additionally, the order of operations in a service policy matters: if shape is applied before police, the policer sees shaped traffic, which may not exceed the rate.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The service-policy is applied inbound, but police should be applied outbound to be effective
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Police can be applied inbound or outbound; direction is not the issue here.
- ✗
The police command is missing an exceed-action, so traffic is transmitted instead of dropped
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. In Cisco IOS, the default exceed-action for the police command is 'drop', not 'transmit'. Missing an explicit exceed-action would still result in dropping, so this is not the cause.
- ✗
The police rate is too high compared to interface speed
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. If the police rate were too high relative to traffic, there would be no excess traffic; but the question states traffic exceeds 1 Mbps, so rate is appropriate.
- ✓
The shape command is interfering with the police command
Why this is correct
Correct. The shape command can interfere with police by smoothing traffic, causing the policer to not see exceed traffic and thus not drop packets.
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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.