200-901 Understanding and Using APIs Practice Question
In a Postman collection, a developer stores the base URL of a Meraki API as a variable. Which Postman feature allows this?
⚠ Common exam trap
200-901 often tests the confusion between Environments and other Postman features like Collections or Pre-request Scripts, but Environments are specifically for managing variables across different contexts.
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
✓
Environments
Environments in Postman allow developers to store variables, such as a base URL, that can be reused across requests and collections. By defining an environment with a variable for the base URL, the developer can easily switch between different environments (e.g., development, production) without modifying each request. This is the standard feature for managing variables like base URLs.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Tests
Why it's wrong here
Tests run JavaScript after a response returns, asserting status codes or extracting values into variables, so they execute too late to supply a base URL for the outgoing request. They are the right feature when validating responses or chaining extracted values into later calls, not for pre-defining a static variable.
- ✓
Environments
Why this is correct
Environments store variables as key-value pairs that Postman substitutes into requests, so the base URL can differ per deployment without editing the collection. This satisfies the requirement to hold the Meraki API base URL as a reusable variable rather than hard-coding it.
- ✗
Pre-request Scripts
Why it's wrong here
Pre-request Scripts execute JavaScript before a request is sent, so they can read or mutate variables at runtime, but they do not define or store a reusable base URL across the collection. Variable definition belongs to collection or environment scopes; scripts are for dynamic computation such as signing or timestamps.
- ✗
Collections
Why it's wrong here
Collections group requests, folders and metadata, and they do host collection-level variables, but the stem asks which feature stores the base URL as a variable — the variable itself, not the container. Collections are the correct choice when organising and sharing related requests, not when naming the variable mechanism.
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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.