Cisco 200-301 Free Practice Questions — Page 2

Correct Answer: C. A leaf switch can be added with connections to every spine switch.

In a spine-and-leaf (Clos) architecture, every leaf switch connects to every spine switch, ensuring any two endpoints are always the same number of hops apart. When additional access ports are needed, a new leaf switch is added and connected to all spine switches, maintaining full mesh connectivity at the spine layer. This design provides predictable, low-latency paths and allows horizontal scaling without redesigning the network. Option A is incorrect because adding both a spine and leaf simultaneously is not the standard scaling method; leaf switches are added for access port expansion. Option B is incorrect because the uplink speed specification alone does not describe the spine-and-leaf scaling method. Option D is incorrect because a leaf switch connects to ALL spine switches, not just a single core spine switch — a single connection would create bottlenecks and unequal paths. The spine-and-leaf architecture's primary advantage is that adding a leaf with connections to every spine switch provides linear, predictable scalability.

Correct Answer: C. The hypervisor virtualizes physical components including CPU, memory, and storage.

A hypervisor (also called a Virtual Machine Monitor) is the software layer that creates and manages virtual machines by abstracting physical hardware resources. It virtualizes the CPU, allowing multiple VMs to share processor time through scheduling. Memory virtualization enables each VM to have its own isolated address space mapped to physical RAM. Storage virtualization presents virtual disks to VMs, abstracting the underlying physical storage. Option A is incorrect because hypervisors do not communicate on Layer 3 independently; they rely on virtual network adapters and physical NICs. Option B is incorrect because a hypervisor can support multiple VMs simultaneously — that is its primary purpose. Option D is incorrect because VMs do not need to be physically connected to a separate switch; the hypervisor includes a virtual software switch for inter-VM and external communication. The defining functionality of the hypervisor is virtualizing physical components (CPU, memory, storage) to enable multiple isolated VMs on a single physical host.

Correct Answer: B. ipv6 address 2001:DB8:5:112::/64 eui-64

EUI-64 (Extended Unique Identifier-64) is a method of automatically generating the 64-bit host portion of an IPv6 address from a device's 48-bit MAC address. The command ipv6 address 2001:DB8:5:112::/64 eui-64 configures the interface to use the specified /64 prefix and generate the interface ID from the MAC address using EUI-64 format. Option A (ipv6 address dhcp) requests an IPv6 address from a DHCPv6 server, which does not use the MAC address directly. Option C (ipv6 address autoconfig) uses SLAAC (Stateless Address Autoconfiguration) which learns the prefix from Router Advertisements rather than a manually specified prefix. Option D is incorrect because it specifies a full static IPv6 address and the link-local keyword is used incorrectly — link-local addresses must use the FE80::/10 prefix. The eui-64 keyword in option B explicitly instructs the router to combine the given prefix with a MAC-derived interface identifier, making it the correct answer.

Correct Answers: D. FF02::1; E. FF02::2

When IPv6 is configured on a router interface, the interface automatically joins specific multicast groups as defined by RFC 4291. FF02::1 is the all-nodes multicast address and is joined by every IPv6-enabled interface on the local link. FF02::2 is the all-routers multicast address and is joined by all IPv6 router interfaces when IPv6 unicast routing is enabled. Option A (2000::/3) is the global unicast address range, not a multicast group. Option B (2002::5) is associated with 6to4 tunneling, not a standard multicast group joined at interface configuration. Option C (FC00::/7) is the unique local address range, not a multicast group. In addition to FF02::1 and FF02::2, an interface also joins its solicited-node multicast address (FF02::1:FF/104 + last 24 bits of the address), but that option is not listed here. Therefore, the two multicast groups joined when configuring IPv6 on a router interface are FF02::1 and FF02::2.

Correct Answer: C. The Layer 2 switch floods packets to all ports except the receiving port in the given VLAN.

When a Layer 2 switch receives a frame with a destination MAC address that is not in its MAC address table (CAM table), it performs a process called unknown unicast flooding. The switch forwards (floods) the frame out all ports in the same VLAN except the port on which the frame was received, allowing the intended recipient to receive it. This behavior is fundamental to how Ethernet switching works — the switch learns MAC addresses from source addresses of incoming frames, not destination addresses. Option A is incorrect because the switch learns and adds the SOURCE MAC address (not destination) to its MAC address table. Option B is incorrect; the CPU is not involved in normal forwarding decisions for unknown unicasts. Option D is incorrect because dropping unknown unicast frames would break basic network connectivity. Once the destination device responds, the switch learns its MAC address and can make forwarding decisions for future frames.