N10-009 · domain
Network Troubleshooting
Use this page to practise Network Troubleshooting questions for this certification. Focus on how the exam tests network troubleshooting in scenario format — understanding the why behind each answer builds more durable knowledge than memorising options.
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What to know about Network Troubleshooting
Network Troubleshooting questions on this certification test your ability to deploy and manage network troubleshooting concepts in scenario-based situations.
Core Network Troubleshooting concepts and how they apply in real-world cloud scenarios.
How to deploy network troubleshooting correctly and verify the outcome.
Troubleshooting network troubleshooting issues by interpreting error output and system state.
Cloud best practices and Network Troubleshooting design trade-offs tested by this certification.
Why learners struggle
Why Network Troubleshooting questions are commonly missed
Network troubleshooting questions are commonly missed because learners confuse symptoms of different OSI layers and misapply tools. They often skip the step of identifying the exact scope of the problem.
Watch out for
Common Network Troubleshooting exam traps
- ▸Selecting the most expensive service when a simpler managed option meets the requirement.
- ▸Forgetting that cloud resources must be explicitly secured — defaults are rarely secure.
- ▸Choosing a global service fix when the issue is region-specific.
- ▸Overlooking cost implications of cross-region data transfer in architecture questions.
Question index
All Network Troubleshooting questions (91)
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A network technician is troubleshooting an issue where users on VLAN 20 can access internal servers and the default gateway but cannot reach any external websites. The router's ACL is configured to permit all outbound traffic. What is the most likely cause of this issue?
Medium2A user reports that they cannot access the internet. The technician verifies the workstation has IP address 192.168.1.10 with subnet mask 255.255.255.0 and default gateway 192.168.1.1. The user can ping the default gateway successfully. Other users on the same subnet can access the internet. Which command should the technician run on the workstation to further isolate the issue?
Medium3A user's workstation shows an IP address of 169.254.15.7 with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0. The user cannot access any network resources. Which of the following is the most likely cause?
Easy4A user reports that they cannot access the internet. The technician is able to ping the default gateway successfully but unable to ping a public IP address (e.g., 8.8.8.8). Which of the following is the most likely cause?
Easy5A user reports that they cannot connect to a file server on the same subnet. The technician checks the workstation's IP configuration: IP 192.168.1.10, subnet mask 255.255.255.0, default gateway 192.168.1.1. The workstation can ping the gateway but cannot ping the file server at 192.168.1.50. Which of the following is the most likely cause?
Medium6A user at a branch office reports that they cannot connect to a file server at the main office. The branch office connects to the main office via a site-to-site VPN, and the VPN tunnel shows as active. The user can ping the main office's default gateway but not the file server. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?
Hard7A user can ping the default gateway (192.168.1.1) but cannot ping the external IP address 8.8.8.8. Other users on the same subnet can ping 8.8.8.8 without issue. The user's IP configuration is correct: IP 192.168.1.10/24, default gateway 192.168.1.1, DNS 8.8.8.8. What is the most likely cause?
Medium8A user reports that their laptop is connected to the corporate Wi-Fi network but cannot access the internet. Other users in the same area are able to access the internet without issues. The laptop shows a valid IP address of 192.168.1.25/24 and the default gateway is 192.168.1.1. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?
Medium9A user reports they can access internal servers and the default gateway but cannot reach external websites. The technician checks the router's ACL and finds a rule that permits all outbound traffic. What is the most likely cause?
Medium10A user reports that they cannot access a web server at 10.0.1.200. The user can ping the server's IP address but cannot open the web page. The web server is known to be running and accessible from other users on the same subnet. What is the most likely cause?
Medium11A user reports that they can access a website by its IP address but not by its domain name. Which of the following is most likely the issue?
Easy12A network engineer is troubleshooting intermittent call drops on a VoIP deployment. The network uses separate VLANs for voice (VLAN 20) and data (VLAN 10). Switch ports connecting the IP phones are configured with the correct voice VLAN. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause to check NEXT?
Hard13A user reports intermittent connectivity on a laptop that moves between floors. The signal strength fluctuates. Which tool would best help identify signal interference and dead zones?
Medium14A user reports that they cannot access any company resources. The technician runs 'ipconfig' and sees that the workstation has an IP address of 169.254.100.25 with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0. The technician also notices that the 'Default Gateway' is blank. What is the most likely cause?
Easy15A user reports that they can access the internet but cannot access the internal web server at 10.10.10.100. The technician can ping the server's IP from the router that serves as the user's default gateway. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?
Medium16A user's computer obtains an IP address from DHCP, can ping the default gateway, but cannot access any external websites. The technician runs 'tracert 8.8.8.8' from the user's computer. The first hop shows the default gateway with low latency, but the second hop shows a timeout. What is the most likely cause?
Hard17A user reports that they can access the company's intranet website by IP address but not by its hostname (intranet.company.local). A technician checks the DNS server and finds that the A record exists and returns the correct IP. However, the user's browser still cannot resolve the hostname. Which of the following is the most likely cause?
Medium18A network technician is troubleshooting inter-VLAN routing. Hosts in VLAN 10 can communicate with hosts in VLAN 20, but cannot communicate with hosts in VLAN 30. All VLANs are configured on the same Layer 3 switch with SVIs. Which of the following should the technician verify FIRST?
Medium19A user reports that they can access internal resources such as file shares and printers by name, but they cannot access any external websites. The technician checks the IP configuration and finds the workstation has a valid IP address, subnet mask, default gateway, and DNS server addresses. The technician can successfully ping the default gateway and an external IP address like 8.8.8.8. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?
Medium20A user reports that they can browse to a website by typing its IP address (e.g., 93.184.216.34) but cannot access it by typing the domain name (e.g., www.example.com). The user's workstation receives IP configuration via DHCP. Which of the following is the most likely cause?
Easy21A network technician is troubleshooting communication between two switches. The trunk link between them is up, and both switches have the same list of allowed VLANs. However, devices in VLAN 10 on one switch cannot communicate with devices in VLAN 10 on the other switch. What is the MOST likely cause of this issue?
Medium22A user reports that they can access the internet but cannot connect to an internal file server at IP address 192.168.1.50. The technician successfully pings the file server's IP address from the user's workstation. The file server is on the same subnet as the user. What is the most likely cause of this issue?
Medium23A user reports that they can access internal websites but cannot access any external websites. Other users in the same subnet can access external sites. The user's IP configuration shows a correct IP, subnet mask, and default gateway. What is the most likely cause?
Medium24A user reports that they can connect to the internet by IP address but cannot access any websites by domain name. Which command-line tool should a technician use first to isolate the issue?
Medium25A network technician notices that a switch port connected to a user's computer is showing a high number of CRC errors and late collisions. The link is operating at 100 Mbps, full duplex according to the switch. Which of the following is the most likely cause of these errors?
Medium26Users in VLAN 10 cannot obtain IP addresses from the DHCP server located in VLAN 20. The router interface for VLAN 10 has an ip helper-address 192.168.20.5 command configured, and users can ping the DHCP server IP (192.168.20.5) from the router. However, users receive APIPA addresses. What is the most likely cause?
Hard27Two routers are configured with OSPF in the same area, but they do not form an adjacency. Router A shows OSPF state EXSTART, and Router B shows state EXSTART. Which of the following is the most likely cause?
Hard28A user can ping the default gateway (192.168.1.1) but cannot access the internet (e.g., ping 8.8.8.8 fails). The user's IP is correctly configured as 192.168.1.10/24. What should the technician check next?
Easy29A technician connects a user's workstation to a switch port. The cable passes a physical test, and the switch port LED is green, but the workstation cannot establish a network connection. What is the most likely cause?
Medium30A network technician is troubleshooting an intermittent link between two switches connected via single-mode fiber. The interface logs show frequent 'link up / link down' events, sometimes several times per hour. The technician has verified that the SFPs are compatible and the fiber cable is within distance specifications. Which of the following is the most likely cause of the issue?
Medium31A user reports that they cannot connect to a file server on the same subnet. The technician checks the IP configuration and sees an IP address of 169.254.5.10. What is the most likely cause?
Easy32A technician is troubleshooting a connectivity issue. A client can successfully ping its default gateway but cannot ping a server located on a different subnet. The router's routing table shows a valid route to the server's network. What should the technician check NEXT?
Medium33A user calls the help desk stating that they cannot access any network resources. The technician asks the user to run ipconfig and the output shows an IP address of 169.254.15.20 with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0. Which of the following is the most likely cause?
Easy34A network administrator is troubleshooting an intermittent link between two switches connected by single-mode fiber. The interface log shows "Link up / Link down" events multiple times per hour. Which of the following is the most likely cause?
Medium35A user reports that they cannot access the internal web server by its fully qualified domain name (intranet.company.com). The workstation's IP configuration shows a DNS server of 8.8.8.8, but the internal DNS server is 10.0.0.10. The user can successfully ping the server's IP address (10.0.0.50). What is the MOST likely cause of the issue?
Medium36A switch is connected to a network printer. The switch port is manually configured for 100 Mbps and full duplex. The printer is configured for auto-negotiation. The link is up, but there are many FCS errors on the switch port. What is the most likely cause?
Hard37A network technician is troubleshooting an issue where Server A can ping Server B by IP address, but Server B cannot ping Server A. Both servers are in the same VLAN and subnet, connected to the same switch. The switch ports are configured identically, and there are no ACLs or firewalls between them. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?
Hard38A network technician is troubleshooting a user's inability to access a specific internal web application hosted on a server at 10.10.10.15:8080. The user can ping the server's IP address successfully, but the web browser displays 'connection refused'. The technician verifies that the web application service is running on the server. What is the most likely cause of the issue?
Medium39Users in a warehouse report that their wireless tablets lose connectivity when moving near large metal racks. The signal strength remains high but throughput drops significantly. What is the most likely cause?
Hard40A user reports intermittent connectivity issues. The technician runs ping tests and notices that pings to the default gateway sometimes fail and sometimes succeed. While pinging, the technician observes that some replies have high latency. Which tool should the technician use to analyze the path and identify where packets are being delayed?
Medium41A network technician runs the command "traceroute 8.8.8.8" from a workstation. The output shows the first hop as the default gateway, the second hop as an internal router, and then a series of asterisks (* * *) before reaching the destination. What does the series of asterisks indicate?
Medium42A user reports intermittent inability to access websites. When the issue occurs, the user can ping external IP addresses (e.g., 8.8.8.8) but cannot ping domain names like google.com. The user's IP configuration shows a DNS server address of 8.8.8.8. What is the most likely cause?
Hard43A technician is troubleshooting a user's computer that cannot access any network resources. The technician runs ipconfig and sees an IP address of 169.254.18.33 with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0. The computer is connected to a switch port configured for VLAN 10. The DHCP server is located in a different subnet (VLAN 200) and is reachable via a router. The technician confirms that the switch port is in the correct VLAN and that the cabling is good. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the issue?
Medium44After replacing a faulty network cable, a user reports that they can access local resources but not the internet. The technician verifies that the user's IP address is 192.168.1.100 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and a default gateway of 192.168.1.1. The technician can ping the default gateway successfully. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?
Medium45A user reports that they cannot access the internet. The user's workstation has an IP address of 192.168.1.100/24, with a default gateway of 192.168.1.1. The user can ping the default gateway but cannot ping 8.8.8.8. Other users on the same subnet can ping 8.8.8.8. The technician checks the switch and sees the user's port is up. What should the technician check next?
Medium46Users in a department report that the network is extremely slow. A technician checks the access switch and notices that a single port shows a high number of CRC errors and runts. The link LED is solid green. Which of the following is the most likely cause of the issue?
Medium47A user reports intermittent connectivity issues. The technician notices that the link lights on both the PC and the switch are solid, but the user experiences periodic drops. The technician runs a cable test and finds that one pair of wires is open. Which standard is the cable likely violating?
Medium48A user reports that they can connect to the corporate Wi-Fi network but cannot access any network resources including the intranet and internet. The IP configuration shows an IP address of 169.254.25.100 with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0. What is the most likely cause?
Medium49A user reports that they can access the company's intranet but not the internet. The technician checks the IP configuration and finds that the default gateway is set to 192.168.1.1, and the user can ping that IP. Which of the following is the most likely cause?
Medium50After replacing a faulty switch, several users in the same VLAN report that they cannot communicate with the server that is on a different subnet. The switch is connected to the router via a trunk port. Which command should the administrator run on the router to verify that the VLAN is allowed on the trunk?
Medium51A network technician is troubleshooting an intermittent connectivity issue between two switches connected via fiber optic cable. The link status shows up/down flapping. The technician checks the optical power levels and finds they are within acceptable range. Which of the following is the most likely cause?
Hard52A network technician is troubleshooting a router that is not forwarding packets to a remote destination network. The routing table shows a valid route learned via OSPF. The technician can successfully ping the next-hop IP address from the router. However, packets to the destination network are not being forwarded. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?
Hard53Users on a VLAN report intermittent network disconnections lasting a few seconds. The network technician checks the switch and notices a high number of CRC errors on the port connecting to the core switch. The cable test passes. What is the most likely cause?
Hard54A user's laptop frequently disconnects from the Wi-Fi network when they move to the conference room. Other devices in the conference room maintain stable connections. The laptop shows a strong signal in the conference room. What is the most likely cause?
Medium55A technician is troubleshooting intermittent connectivity issues on a fiber link between two switches. The link light on both switches is green. Which of the following tools should the technician use to further investigate the issue?
Hard56A user reports that they cannot access the company's internal web application at https://apps.internal.company.com. The technician can ping the server's IP address (10.10.10.20) successfully and also successfully telnet to 10.10.10.20 on port 443. However, the web browser displays 'Unable to connect'. What is the most likely cause?
Easy57A network administrator is deploying a new PoE security camera. The camera is connected to a PoE-enabled switch port, but the camera does not power on. The administrator confirms the switch port has PoE enabled and the cable is tested and functional. What is the most likely cause?
Medium58A user reports that they cannot access the internet, but they can access local resources on the same subnet. The network administrator pings the default gateway and gets a response. Which tool should be used next to trace the path to an external website?
Easy59Drag and drop the steps to configure a firewall rule allowing inbound HTTPS traffic to a web server into the correct order.
Medium60A user reports that they cannot access any network resources. The technician checks the IP configuration on the workstation and sees an IP address of 169.254.10.55 with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?
Easy61A network technician is troubleshooting intermittent internet access for a single user. The user’s workstation can ping the default gateway consistently, but web pages fail to load intermittently. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?
Medium62A network technician is troubleshooting connectivity between two branch offices connected by a site-to-site VPN. The VPN tunnel shows as active and up. Users at Branch A can ping the VPN gateway IP at Branch B successfully, but they cannot access any servers behind the firewall at Branch B. The firewall at Branch B is stateful and its logs show that traffic from Branch A is being dropped. What is the most likely cause?
Hard63A technician is troubleshooting an issue where a wireless client can associate with an access point but cannot obtain an IP address via DHCP. The technician checks the DHCP server and sees no lease requests from the client's MAC address. Which of the following is the most likely cause?
Medium64A technician is troubleshooting intermittent wireless connectivity in a conference room. A site survey shows strong signal strength but many nearby access points are using channels that overlap with the channel used by the conference room AP. Which of the following is the most likely cause of the issue?
Medium65A network technician is troubleshooting a switch port that shows a link light but has a high number of CRC errors in the interface statistics. The port is connected to a workstation's network interface card (NIC). Both devices are set to autonegotiate. What is the MOST likely cause of the CRC errors?
Medium66A user reports slow network performance on their workstation. The technician checks the switch port and sees a high number of CRC errors. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of this issue?
Medium67Match each wireless standard to its maximum theoretical speed.
Medium68A user's computer is unable to obtain a DHCP lease after connecting to a new switch port. The user's computer displays an IP address in the 169.254.x.x range. Other users on the same VLAN can obtain IP addresses successfully. The switch port is configured for 802.1X authentication. What is the most likely cause?
Medium69Users in a branch office report that file transfers to the data center are slow. A technician runs a traceroute and sees consistently high latency on hop 5. The technician then pings hop 5 and gets replies with varying response times. There are no errors reported on the interface. What is the most likely cause?
Medium70Drag and drop the steps to set up a wireless network with WPA2-PSK encryption on a SOHO router into the correct order.
Medium71A network technician is troubleshooting a workstation that is experiencing intermittent connectivity and slow file transfers. The technician has confirmed that the patch cable passes a cable tester, the switch port is not error-disabled, and the workstation's NIC is configured for autonegotiation. The switch port is also set to autonegotiate. Which of the following should the technician check next?
Medium72A user reports that they cannot access the internet. The network technician checks the workstation's IP configuration and finds the IP address 169.254.15.77. What does this address indicate?
Easy73A network technician sees that the link light on a switch port is not lit, even though the cable is connected to an active device. The port has been tested with a known good cable. Which of the following should the technician do next?
Easy74A user reports that they cannot access a web server by its URL but can access it by IP address. A technician checks the DNS server and finds it is reachable. What is the most likely cause?
Medium75A user reports that they can access the company's internal web server by IP address (10.10.10.100) but cannot access it by its hostname (intranet.company.com). The user's workstation is configured with the correct internal DNS server address. Which of the following should the technician do FIRST?
Medium76A network administrator is troubleshooting communication between two switches connected via a trunk port. The trunk link is up/up, but devices in VLAN 20 cannot communicate across the trunk. The administrator has verified that both switches have VLAN 20 created and that the access ports are configured correctly. Which command should the administrator run on each switch to verify the trunk's allowed VLAN list?
Medium77Users in VLAN 10 cannot obtain IP addresses from a DHCP server located in VLAN 20. The router has an ip helper-address configured on VLAN 10 interface pointing to the DHCP server. Users can ping the DHCP server IP from the router. However, users are receiving APIPA addresses. What is the most likely cause?
Medium78A user reports that they cannot access any network resources. The technician runs 'ipconfig' on the workstation and sees that the IP address is 169.254.23.45 with a subnet mask of 255.255.0.0. What is the most likely cause of this issue?
Easy79Users in a small office can access external websites normally, but they cannot reach the internal company wiki server at 192.168.10.25. A technician can successfully ping the server's IP address from a user's workstation. The DNS resolution for the wiki's hostname (wiki.company.local) returns the correct IP. The company's firewall permits HTTP traffic to the server. What is the most likely cause of the issue?
Medium80A technician is troubleshooting a loss of network connectivity for a single workstation. The workstation has a valid IP address but cannot ping its default gateway. The link lights on both the workstation and the switch are solid. Which of the following should the technician check NEXT?
Medium81A user reports that they cannot access the internet. The technician tests connectivity: pinging the default gateway succeeds, but pinging a public IP address like 8.8.8.8 fails. Firewall logs show outbound ICMP to 8.8.8.8 is permitted. What is the most likely cause?
Easy82A network administrator configures a router-on-a-stick to route traffic between VLAN 10 and VLAN 20. Users in each VLAN can communicate within their own VLAN but cannot reach devices in the other VLAN. The router has subinterfaces configured, and the switch port connected to the router is configured as an access port in VLAN 1. What is the most likely cause of the inter-VLAN connectivity failure?
Hard83A user reports that they cannot access any network resources. The technician checks the IP configuration and sees that the workstation has an IP address of 169.254.1.5. What is the most likely cause?
Medium84Users in a branch office report intermittent connectivity to the corporate data center. A technician runs a continuous ping from a workstation to the data center server and observes packet loss after the third hop. Which command should the technician run next to identify the specific router causing the issue?
Medium85A network engineer is troubleshooting intermittent packet loss on a 10 km single-mode fiber link between two buildings. The link lights are on, but the interface shows a high number of CRC errors. The engineer has cleaned the fiber connectors and replaced the patch cables. What should the engineer check NEXT?
Hard86A technician is troubleshooting an intermittent connectivity issue between two switches connected by a fiber optic cable. The link status shows up/down flapping. The technician checks the optical power levels and finds they are within acceptable range. Which of the following is the most likely cause?
Medium87Users in a remote office are experiencing slow file transfers to the data center. The network technician runs a traceroute and discovers high latency on a specific hop. The technician pings that hop and gets replies with varying latency. The technician also checks the interface error counters on the router at that hop and finds no errors. What is the most likely cause?
Hard88A technician is troubleshooting a wireless network that experiences intermittent disconnections. A spectrum analysis shows channel utilization consistently above 80% on the 2.4 GHz band. Which of the following is the most likely cause?
Medium89A user can access a website by its IP address (e.g., 203.0.113.5) but cannot access it by its domain name (example.com). Other users on the same subnet can access the website by domain name. Which of the following should the technician check FIRST?
Medium90Users in a remote branch office report that they cannot access the company's cloud-based applications. The network administrator notices that the edge router's WAN interface is up but the branch's default route points to a next-hop IP that is unreachable. The administrator can ping the ISP's gateway IP from the router. What is the most likely cause?
Hard91A user reports that they can access the internet but cannot access the company's internal web application at https://intranet.company.local. The technician can ping the server's IP address (192.168.10.50) successfully from the user's workstation. However, when the technician runs 'nslookup intranet.company.local', it returns 'Non-existent domain'. What is the most likely cause?
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Frequently asked questions
- What does the Network Troubleshooting domain cover on the N10-009 exam?
- Network Troubleshooting questions on this certification test your ability to deploy and manage network troubleshooting concepts in scenario-based situations.
- How many questions are in this domain?
- This page lists all 91 Network Troubleshooting questions in the N10-009 question bank. The actual exam draws from this domain proportionally to its weighting in the official exam blueprint.
- What is the best way to practise this domain?
- Start with a short focused session (10 questions) to identify gaps, then work through explanations. Repeat with a longer session once the weak areas feel solid.
- Can I practise only Network Troubleshooting questions?
- Yes — the session launcher on this page filters questions to this domain only. Choose any session length for inline explanations and scoring.