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220-1201 A company's network uses a /24 subnet mask Practice Question
A company's network uses a /24 subnet mask. The IT manager asks a technician to configure a new server with a static IP address of 192.168.1.300. The technician knows this is invalid. What is the reason this IP address cannot be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
CompTIA often tests the octet range rule (0–255) to catch candidates who might confuse an invalid octet with other subnetting concepts like broadcast or network addresses.
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
✓
The octet value 300 exceeds the maximum of 255.
An IPv4 octet must be a decimal value between 0 and 255 inclusive. The value 300 exceeds this maximum, making the address 192.168.1.300 invalid. This is a fundamental rule of IPv4 addressing defined in RFC 791.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The address is outside the private IP range.
Why it's wrong here
The IP address 192.168.1.300, if it were valid, would fall squarely within the 192.168.0.0/16 private IP address range. This range is specifically reserved by RFC 1918 for use within private networks and is not routable on the public internet. Therefore, the statement that the address is outside the private IP range is factually incorrect, as the initial octets clearly indicate a private address space.
- ✗
The address is a broadcast address.
Why it's wrong here
For a network configured with a /24 subnet mask, such as 192.168.1.0/24, the broadcast address is always the last usable address in that subnet. This address is identified by having all host bits set to 1, which for this specific subnet results in 192.168.1.255. Since 192.168.1.300 does not match this pattern and contains an invalid octet value, it cannot function as the broadcast address for this network segment.
- ✗
The address is a network address.
Why it's wrong here
The network address, also commonly referred to as the network ID, is the very first address within a given subnet. It is characterized by having all host bits set to 0. For a 192.168.1.0/24 network, the precise network address is 192.168.1.0. The address 192.168.1.300 is fundamentally invalid due to an octet value exceeding 255, and therefore cannot represent the network address for any valid IP subnet.
- ✓
The octet value 300 exceeds the maximum of 255.
Why this is correct
An IPv4 address is fundamentally structured as four distinct octets, with each octet representing an 8-bit binary number. This 8-bit representation means that the valid numerical range for each individual octet is strictly from 0 to 255, inclusive. The presence of the value 300 in the fourth octet of 192.168.1.300 directly violates this foundational rule of IPv4 addressing, rendering the entire address syntactically invalid and unusable on any IP network.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1201 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA 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 220-1201 exam.