350-401 Network Assurance Practice Question
A network engineer is troubleshooting a connectivity issue and wants to verify the path that packets take from a Cisco IOS XE router to a remote destination. Which command provides a hop-by-hop listing of the path, including latency information for each hop?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse ping with traceroute; ping only tests end-to-end reachability, while traceroute reveals the intermediate hops.
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
✓
traceroute
Traceroute is designed to discover the path to a destination by leveraging the TTL field in IP packets. Each router that decrements the TTL to zero sends an ICMP Time Exceeded message, allowing the source to build a list of hops. It also records round-trip times, making it ideal for diagnosing latency and path issues.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
traceroute
Why this is correct
The traceroute command sends packets with incrementally increasing Time-to-Live (TTL) values and records the ICMP Time Exceeded messages returned by each hop. This provides a list of routers along the path and round-trip time for each hop. It is the standard tool for path discovery and latency measurement on Cisco IOS XE.
- ✗
show ip interface brief
Why it's wrong here
The show ip interface brief command provides a summary of interface status and IP addresses, not path information. It is used to quickly check interface up/down status and addressing. It does not provide any details about packet forwarding or latency.
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ping
Why it's wrong here
The ping command tests reachability and measures round-trip time to a destination but does not show the path or intermediate hops. It only indicates whether the destination is reachable and the overall latency. It is not suitable for identifying where along the path a delay or failure occurs.
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show ip route
Why it's wrong here
The show ip route command displays the routing table, which shows the next-hop for each destination but not the full path or latency. It is useful for verifying routing entries but does not provide hop-by-hop information. It cannot reveal the actual path taken by packets through the network.
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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 350-401 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 350-401 exam.