PCNSE Deploy and Configure Firewalls Practice Question
A company needs to provide internet access to 500 internal users using a single public IP address. Which NAT method should be configured?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse Dynamic NAT (which still requires a pool of public IPs) with PAT, assuming any 'dynamic' method can share a single IP, but only PAT performs port-level multiplexing to achieve this.
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
✓
Source NAT with IP and port translation (PAT)
Source NAT with IP and port translation (PAT) allows 500 internal users to share a single public IP address by translating each private source IP:port combination to the public IP with a unique source port. This conserves public IPv4 addresses and is the standard method for large-scale internet access from a private network.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Dynamic NAT (1:1 pool)
Why it's wrong here
Dynamic NAT uses a pool of public IPs but still one-to-one, not sufficient for 500 users with one IP.
- ✗
Static NAT (1:1)
Why it's wrong here
Static NAT maps one internal IP to one external IP, not scalable for many users.
- ✗
Destination NAT
Why it's wrong here
Destination NAT is used for inbound traffic to internal servers.
- ✓
Source NAT with IP and port translation (PAT)
Why this is correct
PAT enables many internal IPs to share a single public IP via port multiplexing.
Visual reference
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every PCNSE question from scratch — 504 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PCNSE practice question is part of Courseiva's free Palo Alto Networks 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 PCNSE exam.