200-901 Network Fundamentals Practice Question
What is the primary benefit of using HTTP/2 over HTTP/1.1?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse HTTP/2's TCP-based multiplexing with HTTP/3's connectionless QUIC transport — candidates who see 'connectionless' may incorrectly associate it with modern HTTP performance features.
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
✓
It supports multiplexing
HTTP/2 introduces binary framing with a multiplexing layer that allows many concurrent request/response streams to share a single TCP connection. This eliminates HTTP/1.1's head-of-line blocking at the application layer and reduces the need for multiple parallel connections or domain sharding. Multiplexing is the headline feature that delivers HTTP/2's performance gains over HTTP/1.1.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
It is connectionless
Why it's wrong here
HTTP/2 runs over TCP and therefore requires an established connection; it multiplexes streams within that connection rather than removing it. It is tempting because connectionless transport describes UDP-based protocols, but HTTP/2's benefit is concurrent stream multiplexing over a single persistent TCP connection.
- ✗
It uses plain text for headers
Why it's wrong here
HTTP/2 compresses header fields using HPACK, a binary encoding, rather than sending them as plain text. It is tempting because HTTP/1.1 does transmit headers as plain text, but replicating that would forfeit the overhead reduction HTTP/2 provides through multiplexed streams and compressed headers.
- ✗
It eliminates the need for TLS
Why it's wrong here
TLS is optional but commonly used.
- ✓
It supports multiplexing
Why this is correct
HTTP/2 introduces binary framing with streams, letting many concurrent requests and responses share one TCP connection. HTTP/1.1 requires separate connections or serialised pipelining, so head-of-line blocking delays later requests. Multiplexing removes that per-connection queueing, which is the primary performance gain.
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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
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