200-901 Network Fundamentals Practice Question
A network application requires reliable, ordered delivery of data and uses a three-way handshake to establish a connection. Which transport protocol is being used?
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
✓
TCP
TCP is a connection-oriented protocol that provides reliable, ordered delivery and uses a three-way handshake (SYN, SYN-ACK, ACK) to establish a connection.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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UDP
Why it's wrong here
UDP is connectionless and provides no handshake, ordering, or delivery guarantees, so it cannot satisfy the stated requirement. It is tempting because it is a transport-layer protocol used for low-latency, loss-tolerant traffic such as streaming or DNS, where TCP's overhead is unnecessary.
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ICMP
Why it's wrong here
ICMP is a network-layer control and error-reporting protocol, not a transport protocol, so it provides no ports, ordering, or handshake. It is tempting because tools like ping use it to test connectivity, but it never carries application data streams requiring reliable, ordered delivery.
- ✓
TCP
Why this is correct
TCP guarantees reliable, ordered delivery through sequence numbers, acknowledgements and retransmission, and establishes connections via the three-way SYN, SYN-ACK, ACK handshake. This satisfies the stem's explicit requirements for both ordered reliable delivery and handshake-based connection establishment, which connectionless UDP cannot provide.
- ✗
IP
Why it's wrong here
IP is a connectionless network-layer protocol that provides addressing and routing, not transport reliability, ordering, or handshakes; TCP supplies those. It is tempting because IP carries the packets TCP segments, but IP itself offers no delivery guarantees, so it cannot satisfy the three-way handshake requirement.
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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.