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200-901 Practice Question: An engineer is troubleshooting a Cisco DNA Center…
An engineer is troubleshooting a Cisco DNA Center API call that returns a 401 error. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the distinction between HTTP status codes (401 vs 400 vs 404 vs 502) to see if candidates understand that each code maps to a specific failure category in REST API interactions.
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 authentication token has expired
A 401 Unauthorized error from the Cisco DNA Center API indicates that the request lacks valid authentication credentials. The most common cause is that the authentication token (JWT) obtained via the /dna/system/api/v1/auth/token endpoint has expired. Cisco DNA Center tokens have a default expiry of 60 minutes, after which the API rejects the request with a 401 status.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
The authentication token has expired
Why this is correct
401 indicates missing or invalid authentication credentials.
- ✗
The network device is unreachable
Why it's wrong here
Device unreachable results in a different error, not a 401.
- ✗
The request body is invalid
Why it's wrong here
Invalid body results in 400 Bad Request.
- ✗
The API endpoint is incorrect
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect endpoint returns 404 Not Found.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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