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
The MX record must sit at the zone apex (example.com.) with preference 10 and point to mail.example.com., the mail server's FQDN. Placing the owner name at mail.example.com. would instead declare a mail exchanger for that host, not the domain.
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mail.example.com. IN A 192.168.1.10
Why it's wrong here
An A record maps a hostname to an IPv4 address but provides no mail routing or preference value, so senders cannot locate the mail exchanger. A records are correct for resolving hostnames to addresses, whereas the stem explicitly requires an MX record with priority 10 for mail.example.com.
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mail.example.com. IN CNAME example.com.
Why it's wrong here
A CNAME aliases a name to another name and is prohibited at an MX target, so mail delivery would fail; MX requires a hostname with address records. CNAMEs are correct for aliasing web or service names to canonical hostnames, not for defining mail exchangers.
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example.com. IN TXT "v=spf1 mx -all"
Why it's wrong here
A TXT record carries SPF or verification strings and cannot express mail routing or priority; BIND will not treat it as an MX target. TXT is correct for publishing SPF, DKIM or domain-verification data, but the stem requires an MX record pointing mail.example.com with preference 10.
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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.