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220-1201 Practice Question: A technician is setting up a new branch office…
A technician is setting up a new branch office and needs to assign IPs to 30 devices. The ISP provided a public IP block of 203.0.113.0/28. The technician decides to use private IPs internally and NAT. Which of the following is the most appropriate private IP range for this network?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse the ISP-provided public IP range with the internal addressing requirement, mistakenly selecting the public block (Option A) for internal use instead of recognizing that private IPs (RFC 1918) must be used behind NAT.
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
✓
192.168.1.0/24
(192.168.1.0/24) is correct because it provides a private IP range (per RFC 1918) that supports up to 254 hosts, which is more than sufficient for 30 devices. The /28 public block from the ISP is used only for NAT translation, not for internal addressing, and private IPs must be used internally to conserve public addresses.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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203.0.113.1 to 203.0.113.14
Why it's wrong here
This range consists of public IP addresses, specifically part of the documentation prefix 203.0.113.0/24, which are routable on the internet. Using public IP addresses for internal devices in a private network is fundamentally incorrect and would lead to severe routing conflicts and security vulnerabilities. These addresses are intended for external interfaces of network devices, such as a router's WAN port, to communicate directly with the internet, not for devices behind a Network Address Translation (NAT) firewall.
- ✗
10.0.0.0/8
Why it's wrong here
While 10.0.0.0/8 is a valid private IP address range, it encompasses an extremely vast number of addresses (over 16 million usable hosts). For a small branch office with only 30 devices, allocating an entire Class A private network is grossly inefficient and excessive. Although technically functional, it represents poor network design by wasting a significant portion of the address space and potentially complicating future network segmentation or routing.
- ✓
192.168.1.0/24
Why this is correct
The 192.168.1.0/24 range is a standard private IP address block, commonly used for small to medium-sized networks. A /24 subnet provides 254 usable host addresses (2^(32-24) - 2 = 256 - 2 = 254), which is perfectly adequate and efficient for a branch office with 30 devices. This choice aligns with best practices for private network addressing, offering sufficient capacity without excessive waste, and is easily managed.
- ✗
172.16.0.0/12
Why it's wrong here
The 172.16.0.0/12 range is a private IP address space defined by RFC 1918, offering a substantial number of addresses (over 1 million usable hosts). While private, this range is typically reserved for larger organizational networks that require extensive subnetting across multiple departments or locations. For a small office with only 30 devices, using a /12 range is disproportionately large and inefficient, similar to the 10.0.0.0/8 range, making it an inappropriate choice for this specific scenario.
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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.