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CAS-004 Practice Question: Deploying IoT sensors in a remote area with…
A company is deploying IoT sensors in a remote area with limited connectivity. The sensors must be able to securely transmit data using minimal bandwidth. Which protocol should the engineer choose?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse 'secure' with 'lightweight' and choose HTTPS or SSH because they are familiar, overlooking that MQTT is specifically engineered for low-bandwidth IoT scenarios and can be secured with TLS without sacrificing efficiency.
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
✓
MQTT with TLS
MQTT with TLS is the correct choice because MQTT is a lightweight publish-subscribe protocol designed for constrained devices and low-bandwidth, high-latency networks. It minimizes overhead with a small header (2 bytes minimum) and supports persistent connections, making it ideal for IoT sensors in remote areas. TLS ensures encrypted, authenticated communication without adding significant bandwidth overhead when using modern cipher suites.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
SNMPv3
Why it's wrong here
SNMPv3 is a network management protocol, not suitable for general sensor data transmission.
- ✗
HTTPS
Why it's wrong here
HTTPS has significant overhead due to full TLS handshake and HTTP headers, not optimal for bandwidth-constrained IoT.
- ✓
MQTT with TLS
Why this is correct
MQTT is designed for low-bandwidth, high-latency networks and TLS provides security.
- ✗
SSH
Why it's wrong here
SSH is used for remote command execution, not designed for efficient telemetry transmission from many devices.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CAS-005 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 CAS-005 exam.