200-901 Network Fundamentals Practice Question
An application requires reliable, ordered delivery of data. Which transport protocol should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse protocol layers — candidates may pick HTTP thinking it guarantees delivery, or IP thinking it routes data reliably, when only TCP provides transport-layer reliability and ordering.
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 the correct choice because it is a connection-oriented transport-layer protocol that guarantees reliable, ordered delivery of data through mechanisms such as sequence numbers, acknowledgments, and retransmissions. UDP does not provide reliability or ordering, HTTP is an application-layer protocol that itself relies on TCP for reliability, and IP is a network-layer protocol that offers best-effort delivery with no guarantees.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
UDP
Why it's wrong here
UDP is connectionless and provides no acknowledgement, retransmission or sequencing, so datagrams may arrive lost, duplicated or out of order. It tempts for latency-sensitive streaming where occasional loss is tolerable, but the stem explicitly demands reliable, ordered delivery, which only TCP guarantees at the transport layer.
- ✗
HTTP
Why it's wrong here
HTTP is an application-layer protocol riding on TCP; it does not itself guarantee ordered, reliable delivery, and its request-response semantics add overhead irrelevant here. It tempts because HTTP carries most application traffic, but the requirement names transport-layer reliability and ordering, which TCP provides directly.
- ✓
TCP
Why this is correct
TCP establishes a connection, sequences segments, acknowledges receipt and retransmits lost data, guaranteeing ordered, reliable delivery. UDP offers neither ordering nor delivery guarantees. The stem's requirement for reliable, ordered delivery therefore maps directly to TCP's transport-layer mechanisms.
- ✗
IP
Why it's wrong here
IP is a connectionless network-layer protocol offering best-effort delivery with no acknowledgements, retransmission or ordering guarantees. It tempts because every packet traverses IP, but reliability and ordering are added by the transport layer above it — TCP — not by IP itself.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Cisco exam blueprint
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.