easyMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
220-1201 Practice Question: A user complains that their smartphone frequently…
A user complains that their smartphone frequently disconnects from the office Wi-Fi and then reconnects after a few seconds. The issue occurs only when the user walks to a specific part of the building. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
The 220-1201 exam often tests the concept that location-specific Wi-Fi issues are almost always due to physical obstructions or dead zones, not device-specific hardware faults or network-wide overload, which are common distractors.
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 smartphone is encountering a Wi-Fi dead zone due to building materials.
The issue occurs only when the user walks to a specific part of the building, which strongly indicates a physical obstruction or signal absorption by building materials (e.g., concrete, metal studs, or rebar). Wi-Fi signals in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands attenuate significantly when passing through dense materials, creating localized dead zones where the client device loses connectivity and then reconnects upon moving back into range. This matches the symptom of frequent disconnects and reconnects tied to a specific location.
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 smartphone's battery saver mode is turning off Wi-Fi.
Why it's wrong here
The smartphone's battery saver mode is designed to conserve power by reducing background activity and limiting CPU performance, not by intermittently disabling Wi-Fi in specific locations. While some aggressive battery-saving profiles might disable Wi-Fi when the device is idle for extended periods, they typically do not cause frequent, brief disconnections during active use, especially not localized to particular areas.
- ✗
The office access point is overloaded with too many connections.
Why it's wrong here
An overloaded Wi-Fi access point (AP) would manifest as degraded performance, slow speeds, or disconnections affecting multiple users or devices connected to that AP, not just an isolated issue for a single smartphone. If the problem is specific to one user and only occurs in certain areas, it points away from a general AP capacity issue that would impact everyone in its vicinity.
- ✓
The smartphone is encountering a Wi-Fi dead zone due to building materials.
Why this is correct
Dense building materials such as concrete, steel, plaster, or even water pipes within walls can significantly attenuate Wi-Fi radio frequency (RF) signals, creating areas where the signal strength drops below a reliable threshold. When the smartphone moves into such a 'dead zone,' its connection becomes unstable, leading to frequent disconnections and attempts to re-establish a link, perfectly aligning with location-specific connectivity issues.
- ✗
The smartphone's Wi-Fi antenna is loose.
Why it's wrong here
A loose or damaged internal Wi-Fi antenna would compromise the smartphone's ability to transmit and receive signals effectively across all environments. This hardware fault would result in consistently poor signal strength, slow data rates, or complete inability to connect to Wi-Fi networks regardless of the user's location, rather than intermittent problems confined to specific areas.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This 220-1201 question is part of Courseiva's 972-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
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.