LPIC-1 Essential System Services and Networking Practice Question
An organization's DNS server (BIND) is authoritatively serving the example.com zone. The administrator needs to add a mail exchange record for mail.example.com with priority 10. Which resource record should be added to the zone file?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse the purpose of MX records with A or CNAME records, or mistakenly think an SPF TXT record is the correct way to designate a mail server, when in fact MX records are the standard mechanism for mail routing.
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
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example.com. IN MX 10 mail.example.com.
An MX record specifies the mail exchange server for a domain, and the syntax 'example.com. IN MX 10 mail.example.com.' defines a priority of 10 for the mail server mail.example.com. This record tells other mail servers to deliver email for @example.com to mail.example.com, with lower priority values preferred.
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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example.com. IN MX 10 mail.example.com.
Why this is correct
MX record defines mail exchange with priority.
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mail.example.com. IN A 192.168.1.10
Why it's wrong here
A record maps hostname to IP.
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mail.example.com. IN CNAME example.com.
Why it's wrong here
CNAME creates alias.
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example.com. IN TXT "v=spf1 mx -all"
Why it's wrong here
TXT is for text data like SPF.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This LPIC-1 practice question is part of Courseiva's free LPI 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 LPIC-1 exam.