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200-901 Practice Question: A developer is troubleshooting a Cisco RESTCONF…
A developer is troubleshooting a Cisco RESTCONF API call that returns a 409 Conflict error. Which two scenarios could cause this? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the distinction between 409 Conflict and 400 Bad Request, where candidates mistakenly think invalid data types cause a conflict rather than a client-side syntax error.
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 resource's current state conflicts with the requested change (e.g., trying to delete a resource that is in use).
Option B is correct because RESTCONF returns HTTP 409 Conflict when the server cannot complete the request due to a conflict with the resource's current state, such as attempting to delete a resource that is still referenced or in use by another object. Option C is correct because a 409 Conflict is also returned when a client attempts to create a resource that already exists, violating the uniqueness constraint of the target data node. Option A is incorrect because a missing authentication token produces HTTP 401 Unauthorized (or 403 Forbidden), not 409. Option D is incorrect because a nonexistent resource yields HTTP 404 Not Found. Option E is incorrect because invalid data types trigger HTTP 400 Bad Request due to schema or validation failure.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Authentication token is missing.
Why it's wrong here
A missing authentication token yields 401 Unauthorized, not 409 Conflict. It is tempting because authentication failures are common RESTCONF issues, and it would be correct when credentials are absent or expired, but 409 signals a resource-state conflict such as a duplicate or concurrent edit.
- ✓
The resource's current state conflicts with the requested change (e.g., trying to delete a resource that is in use).
Why this is correct
HTTP 409 means the request conflicts with the resource's current state. Attempting to delete a resource still in use, such as an object referenced by dependents, produces exactly this conflict because the server cannot reconcile the requested deletion with existing references.
- ✓
The resource already exists and the request attempts to create a duplicate.
Why this is correct
A 409 arises when the request contradicts existing server state. Issuing a create for a resource that already exists duplicates a unique key, so the server rejects it as a conflict rather than overwriting or silently succeeding.
- ✗
The resource does not exist.
Why it's wrong here
A missing resource yields 404 Not Found, because the URI path resolves to no existing target. It tempts because developers frequently hit absent paths when first testing RESTCONF, but that condition is reported as 404. A 409 Conflict instead signals a state clash, such as a duplicate create or a lock violation.
- ✗
The request contains invalid data types.
Why it's wrong here
Invalid data types produce a 400 Bad Request, since the server rejects malformed or wrongly typed payload values during schema validation. It tempts because YANG type mismatches are a common RESTCONF error, but they map to 400, not 409. A 409 arises from a state conflict, such as creating a resource that already exists.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 200-901 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 200-901 exam.