200-901 Understanding and Using APIs Practice Question
Which THREE statements about NETCONF are correct?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the distinction between NETCONF and RESTCONF transport protocols, and the specific datastore retrieval operations, leading candidates to confuse <get-config> with <get> or to assume HTTP is used for NETCONF.
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
✓
NETCONF uses SSH as the transport protocol.
Option B is correct because NETCONF (RFC 6241) defines SSH as its mandatory transport protocol, mapping NETCONF sessions to the SSH subsystem 'netconf' on TCP port 830. Option C is correct because the <edit-config> operation is the standard NETCONF RPC for loading configuration changes into a specified datastore (running, candidate, or startup), supporting merge, replace, create, and delete operations. Option E is correct because all NETCONF protocol operations are encoded as XML-based RPCs within <rpc> and <rpc-reply> elements, using the NETCONF base namespace. Option A is incorrect because HTTP is not the NETCONF transport; NETCONF over HTTP is not defined in the base specification (RESTCONF is the HTTP-based alternative). Option D is incorrect because <get-config> retrieves only configuration data from a datastore; state data is retrieved with the separate <get> operation.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
NETCONF uses HTTP as the transport protocol.
Why it's wrong here
NETCONF runs over SSH on TCP port 830, not HTTP, so this statement fails the scenario. HTTP transport belongs to RESTCONF, which maps YANG-modelled data onto REST verbs and status codes. That distinction is tempting because both protocols configure devices via YANG; RESTCONF suits HTTP-native tooling, whereas NETCONF requires SSH.
- ✓
NETCONF uses SSH as the transport protocol.
Why this is correct
NETCONF mandates SSH as its transport, satisfying the stem's requirement for a secure, connection-oriented channel. Unlike SNMP's UDP-based model, SSH provides encryption, authentication and reliable delivery, over which NETCONF exchanges XML-encoded RPCs on port 830. This transport binding is defined in RFC 6242.
- ✓
The <edit-config> operation is used to modify configuration data.
Why this is correct
The <edit-config> operation writes changes into the running or candidate datastore, satisfying NETCONF's requirement for transactional configuration modification over SSH. Unlike <get-config>, which only retrieves data, <edit-config> supports merge, replace, create and delete default-operation attributes, letting engineers push precise configuration deltas to network devices.
- ✗
The <get-config> operation retrieves both configuration and state data.
Why it's wrong here
<get-config> returns configuration datastore contents only; state data requires <get>. It is tempting because both operations look like read calls, so <get-config> would be correct when you need running configuration alone, without operational counters or interface statistics.
- ✓
NETCONF operations are XML RPCs.
Why this is correct
NETCONF encodes operations as XML RPCs, with each request and reply wrapped in XML elements such as <rpc> and <rpc-reply>. This satisfies the stem's requirement for a correct NETCONF statement, distinguishing it from REST-based or binary protocols.
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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.