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200-901 Practice Question: Deploying a new application that requires…
A company is deploying a new application that requires low-latency communication between servers in the same data center. The network team is designing a leaf-spine architecture. What is the primary advantage of this topology over a traditional three-tier design?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse 'fewer layers' with 'simpler redundancy' (Option A), but Cisco tests that leaf-spine actually increases the number of switches and cabling to achieve consistent low latency, not to reduce complexity or hardware count.
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
✓
Consistent low latency and high bandwidth between any two devices.
In a leaf-spine architecture, every leaf switch connects to every spine switch, creating a full-mesh topology. This ensures that any server-to-server path traverses exactly one leaf and one spine switch, providing consistent, predictable low latency and high bandwidth regardless of which servers communicate. This is the primary advantage over a traditional three-tier design, where traffic may need to traverse multiple aggregation and core layers, introducing variable latency and potential bottlenecks.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Simpler redundancy with fewer layers.
Why it's wrong here
Both designs can have redundancy, but leaf-spine has more paths, not simpler.
- ✓
Consistent low latency and high bandwidth between any two devices.
Why this is correct
With equal-cost multipathing, latency is consistent and low.
- ✗
Easier to deploy with less cabling.
Why it's wrong here
Leaf-spine requires more cabling as each leaf connects to every spine.
- ✗
Reduced number of required switch ports.
Why it's wrong here
Leaf-spine generally requires more ports due to full mesh connectivity.
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