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This page has 9 Troubleshooting Scenario Questions scenario questions for the 350-401 exam, each with detailed explanations and wrong-answer analysis.

How should I approach 350-401 scenario questions?

Read the full scenario before looking at the answer options. Identify the constraint or requirement in the scenario, then eliminate options that are generally true but wrong for this specific case. Scenario questions reward careful reading over pattern matching.

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Scenario-based practice

Troubleshooting Scenario Questions

Practise ENCOR 350-401 practice questions — original exam-style scenarios covering every exam domain, with detailed explanations, wrong-answer analysis, and common exam traps.

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scenario questions

350-401

exam code

Cisco

vendor

Scenario guide

How to approach troubleshooting scenario questions

These questions describe a network symptom and ask you to identify the root cause or the correct fix. They appear across all certification exams and reward systematic thinking over memorisation. The best candidates follow a consistent troubleshooting framework even under time pressure.

Quick answer

Troubleshooting Scenario Questions questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.

How the topic appears in realistic exam-style scenarios.

Which detail in the question changes the correct answer.

How to eliminate plausible but wrong options.

How to connect the question back to the wider exam objective.

Practice scenarios

Question 1mediummultiple choice

Open the full BGP breakdown →

A network administrator is troubleshooting a BGP routing issue where routes from an eBGP neighbor are not being installed in the routing table. The 'show ip bgp' output shows the routes are received but not valid. What is the most likely cause?

A
The AS-path contains the local AS number.
Why wrong: This is incorrect. While an AS-path containing the local AS number can cause routes to be rejected due to loop prevention, the typical symptom is routes not being received at all or being marked as invalid, not the specific 'received but not valid' status. The most common cause for 'not valid' is next-hop unreachability.
B
The next-hop IP address is not reachable.
Correct. For a BGP route to be considered valid and installed in the routing table, the next-hop IP address must be reachable via an IGP or static route. If the next hop is not reachable, the route will appear in the 'show ip bgp' output but be marked as not valid.
C
BGP synchronization is enabled.
Why wrong: This is incorrect. BGP synchronization is a legacy feature that requires the route to be in the IGP before it is advertised. In modern networks, synchronization is disabled by default. Even if enabled, it affects advertisement, not the validity of received routes in the BGP table.
D
The maximum-prefix limit has been exceeded.
Why wrong: This is incorrect. Exceeding the maximum-prefix limit typically causes the BGP session to reset or routes to be withdrawn, not to be marked as 'not valid' in the BGP table. Routes would likely be removed entirely, not just marked invalid.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

Question 2mediummultiple choice

Read the full network assurance explanation →

A network engineer is troubleshooting a problem where Cisco DNA Center is not receiving syslog messages from a critical core switch. The switch is configured to send syslog to the DNA Center's IP address. The engineer checks the DNA Center syslog collector and finds that it is enabled. What should the engineer check next?

A
Verify that the syslog port (UDP 514) is not blocked by a firewall or ACL.
Correct because syslog uses UDP 514, and if the port is blocked, messages will not reach DNA Center.
B
Check if the syslog messages are in the correct format.
Why wrong: Incorrect because DNA Center accepts standard syslog formats; format issues would not prevent all messages from being received.
C
Ensure that the switch is in the Inventory and managed by DNA Center.
Why wrong: Incorrect because syslog collection does not require the device to be in Inventory; it is a separate function.
D
Restart the syslog collector service on DNA Center.
Why wrong: Incorrect because the collector is enabled, so restarting it is unlikely to resolve a connectivity issue.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

Question 3mediummultiple choice

Read the full network assurance explanation →

A network engineer is troubleshooting a model-driven telemetry deployment on a Cisco IOS-XE router. The telemetry subscription is configured to stream interface statistics using gRPC dial-out to a collector at 10.1.1.100:50051. The engineer verifies that the collector is listening on the port and the router can reach it. However, the collector shows no data received. The engineer checks the router's telemetry logs and sees 'Connection refused' errors. What is the most likely cause?

A
The collector's firewall is blocking the connection from the router
Why wrong: If the firewall were blocking, the error would likely be 'No route to host' or timeout, not 'Connection refused'.
B
The gRPC server on the collector is not running or is listening on a different port
'Connection refused' occurs when the TCP SYN reaches the host but no application is listening on the specified port.
C
The telemetry subscription is missing the 'encoding' configuration
Why wrong: Missing encoding would not cause a connection refusal; the router would still attempt to connect.
D
The router's source-interface is not configured, causing the router to use an unreachable IP
Why wrong: If the source IP were unreachable, the error would be 'No route to host' or timeout, not 'Connection refused'.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

Question 4mediumdrag order

Read the full network assurance explanation →

Drag and drop the steps of troubleshooting NetFlow export issues into the correct order, from first to last.

Drag steps to the numbered slots on the right, or tap a step then tap a slot.

Steps

Order

1Step 1

2Step 2

3Step 3

4Step 4

5Step 5

Question 5mediumdrag order

Read the full EtherChannel explanation →

Drag and drop the steps of EtherChannel troubleshooting and verification steps into the correct order, from first to last.

Drag steps to the numbered slots on the right, or tap a step then tap a slot.

Steps

Order

1Step 1

2Step 2

3Step 3

4Step 4

5Step 5

A
Check physical port status with 'show interfaces'
Correct first step: check physical port status with 'show interfaces' to identify down ports, errors, or speed/duplex mismatches.
B
Verify EtherChannel bundle with 'show etherchannel summary'
Correct second step: after verifying physical ports are up, use 'show etherchannel summary' to confirm the bundle is formed and member ports are in the correct state.
C
Inspect protocol details with 'show etherchannel detail'
Correct third step: 'show etherchannel detail' provides in-depth protocol-specific information to catch configuration mismatches.
D
Check load-balancing with 'show etherchannel load-balance'
Correct fourth step: 'show etherchannel load-balance' ensures the load-balancing algorithm is appropriate for the traffic pattern.
E
Test end-to-end connectivity with ping and traceroute
Correct final step: test end-to-end connectivity with ping and traceroute to validate that the EtherChannel is forwarding traffic correctly.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

Question 6easymultiple choice

Review the full OSPF breakdown →

A network engineer is troubleshooting an OSPF adjacency issue between two routers connected via a serial link. The adjacency is stuck in the INIT state. The engineer has verified that the IP addresses are in the same subnet and that the link is up. What is the most likely cause?

A
The OSPF router IDs are the same.
Why wrong: Incorrect because duplicate router IDs would cause the adjacency to fail at a later state, not INIT.
B
The OSPF hello interval is mismatched between the two routers.
Correct because if the hello intervals are different, the routers will not agree on the hello timer, causing the adjacency to remain in INIT.
C
The OSPF process ID is different.
Why wrong: Incorrect because OSPF process ID is locally significant and does not affect adjacency formation.
D
The OSPF network type is point-to-point on one router and point-to-multipoint on the other.
Why wrong: Incorrect because network type mismatch typically causes issues in the 2WAY state, not INIT.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

Question 7mediummultiple choice

Read the full wireless explanation →

A network engineer is troubleshooting a wireless connectivity issue in a campus network managed by Cisco DNA Center. The Assurance module shows that several access points have high client association failures. The engineer checks the wireless controller configuration and finds that the APs are registered and functional. What is the most likely cause of the association failures?

A
RF interference or poor signal-to-noise ratio on the affected APs.
Correct because high association failures are often due to RF issues, which DNA Center Assurance can detect and report.
B
The APs are not running the recommended firmware version.
Why wrong: Incorrect while firmware can cause issues, the APs are registered and functional; association failures are more likely RF-related.
C
The wireless controller has reached its maximum number of APs.
Why wrong: Incorrect because if the controller were full, APs would not register; the scenario states APs are registered and functional.
D
The DNA Center Assurance module is not properly configured to monitor wireless events.
Why wrong: Incorrect because the engineer is already seeing association failure data in Assurance, so monitoring is working.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

Question 8hardmultiple choice

Study the full QoS explanation →

An engineer is troubleshooting QoS on a Cisco ASR 1002 router. The router is configured with a policy map that includes a class for voice with a priority command. During congestion, the engineer notices that voice traffic is being dropped even though the priority queue is not congested. The router logs show 'QoS: priority queue overflow'. What is the most likely cause?

A
The priority queue has a default policer that drops traffic exceeding a certain rate
Correct because on ASR routers, the priority command includes an implicit policer to prevent starvation of other queues; exceeding this policer causes drops.
B
The interface bandwidth is set too low, causing the priority queue to be under-provisioned
Why wrong: Incorrect because the priority queue is not bandwidth-constrained; the policer is independent of interface bandwidth.
C
The class map is not matching the voice traffic correctly
Why wrong: Incorrect because if the class map did not match, the traffic would not enter the priority queue at all.
D
The router is using WRED on the priority queue
Why wrong: Incorrect because WRED is not applied to priority queues; it is used for non-priority queues to manage congestion.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

Question 9mediumdrag order

Read the full EtherChannel explanation →

Drag and drop the steps of EtherChannel troubleshooting and verification into the correct order, from first to last.

Drag steps to the numbered slots on the right, or tap a step then tap a slot.

Steps

Order

1Step 1

2Step 2

3Step 3

4Step 4

5Step 5

These 350-401 practice questions are part of Courseiva's free Cisco certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style 350-401 questions with detailed explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics.

Troubleshooting Scenario Questions

How to approach troubleshooting scenario questions

Quick answer

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Practice scenarios

A network administrator is troubleshooting a BGP routing issue where routes from an eBGP neighbor are not being installed in the routing table. The 'show ip bgp' output shows the routes are received but not valid. What is the most likely cause?

Drag and drop the steps of troubleshooting NetFlow export issues into the correct order, from first to last.

Drag and drop the steps of EtherChannel troubleshooting and verification steps into the correct order, from first to last.

A network engineer is troubleshooting an OSPF adjacency issue between two routers connected via a serial link. The adjacency is stuck in the INIT state. The engineer has verified that the IP addresses are in the same subnet and that the link is up. What is the most likely cause?

Drag and drop the steps of EtherChannel troubleshooting and verification into the correct order, from first to last.