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200-201 Practice Question: Which THREE are common indicators of a…
Which THREE are common indicators of a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack? (Choose three.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the distinction between a single-source DoS and a multi-source DDoS, so candidates may incorrectly select 'a single IP address generating excessive traffic' as a DDoS indicator, but the key is the distributed nature of the attack.
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
✓
Slow network performance and service unavailability
A DDoS attack floods the target with traffic from multiple sources, overwhelming network resources and causing legitimate requests to time out or be dropped. This results in slow network performance and service unavailability as the system struggles to process the excessive load. The distributed nature of the attack makes it difficult to mitigate with simple IP-based filtering.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Slow network performance and service unavailability
Why this is correct
Overwhelmed resources cause slowdowns.
- ✗
A single IP address generating excessive traffic
Why it's wrong here
Single IP suggests a DoS, not distributed.
- ✓
High bandwidth consumption on the network link
Why this is correct
DDoS floods the link with traffic.
- ✓
Unusual traffic patterns from many different sources
Why this is correct
Many sources indicate a distributed attack.
- ✗
Encrypted traffic from a known malware C2 server
Why it's wrong here
C2 traffic indicates compromise, not necessarily DDoS.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 200-201 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 200-201 exam.