easyMultiple Choice
200-901 Practice Question: A network automation engineer is writing a Python…
A network automation engineer is writing a Python script to interact with the Cisco Meraki Dashboard API. The script currently makes GET requests to retrieve a list of networks and then makes subsequent requests for each network to get device details. However, the script is slow due to network latency. The engineer wants to improve performance without changing the API's functionality. Which approach best addresses the performance issue?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the distinction between concurrency (asyncio) and parallelism (multithreading/multiprocessing), and candidates may confuse increasing timeouts or changing HTTP methods as valid performance optimizations when they are not.
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
✓
Use parallel requests with asyncio for concurrent API calls.
Using asyncio with an async HTTP library (like aiohttp) allows the script to send multiple GET requests concurrently rather than sequentially, reducing the total wall-clock time dominated by network latency. This approach improves performance without altering the API's functionality or the data being retrieved.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Wrap all API calls in a single transaction.
Why it's wrong here
The Meraki Dashboard API exposes no transaction endpoint, so calls cannot be batched into one commit; latency between sequential GETs remains. It is tempting because transactions reduce round trips in database APIs, and it would be correct where the API supports atomic multi-operation commits.
- ✗
Increase the timeout value in each request.
Why it's wrong here
Raising the timeout only lets slow requests wait longer; it does not reduce the number of round trips, so total runtime is unchanged. It is tempting because timeouts are a common tuning knob, and it would be correct when requests fail prematurely on a slow but functional connection.
- ✓
Use parallel requests with asyncio for concurrent API calls.
Why this is correct
Sequential GET requests serialise latency, so each round trip adds delay. asyncio dispatches the per-network device calls concurrently, overlapping network waits and cutting total runtime, which satisfies the performance requirement without altering API behaviour or endpoints.
- ✗
Use a POST request instead of GET to combine both operations.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect because using a POST request instead of GET does not combine operations in a way that reduces latency; it may also violate RESTful API design and typically has no performance benefit for fetching data.
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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.