Campus Network Design Practice Questions

Answers and explanations appear when you work through the set above.

1. A core Layer 3 switch has VLAN 10, VLAN 20, and VLAN 30 interfaces each configured with an IP address in a different subnet. What are these VLAN interfaces commonly called, and what is their purpose?

   • Trunk interfaces, used only to carry tagged frames between switches
   • Switched virtual interfaces (SVIs), which act as the default gateway for hosts in each VLAN
   • Loopback interfaces, used only for management access
   • Port-channel interfaces, used to bundle physical links together

2. Access-layer switches only need a single management IP address in VLAN 1, while all user VLANs (10, 20, 30) exist only as access ports on those switches with routing handled by the core. What must the links between the access switches and the core switch be configured as?

   • Access ports in VLAN 1 only
   • Trunk ports, so that traffic for multiple VLANs can be carried over the single uplink
   • Routed point-to-point Layer 3 links
   • EtherChannel in Layer 2 mode only, trunking is not required

3. An IOS access switch is operating as a Layer 2 switch with IP routing disabled. Its management SVI must reach devices outside its local subnet. Which command supplies the next hop for the switch's own management traffic?

   • ip default-gateway <core switch VLAN 1 IP>
   • ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 <core switch VLAN 1 IP>
   • ip routing
   • default-router <core switch VLAN 1 IP>

4. Why does a hierarchical campus design typically separate devices into access, distribution, and core layers rather than connecting every switch directly to every other switch?

   • It is required by the 802.1Q standard
   • It provides a scalable, modular structure where each layer has a distinct role, making the network easier to troubleshoot, expand, and secure
   • It eliminates the need for spanning tree entirely
   • It removes the need for any Layer 3 devices in the network

5. In a campus design, VLANs must be consistently created on the core switch and every access switch so trunked traffic is recognized correctly on both ends. Which feature, when configured with matching domain names, can propagate VLAN configuration from a server switch to client switches automatically?

   • VTP (VLAN Trunking Protocol)
   • CDP (Cisco Discovery Protocol)
   • HSRP (Hot Standby Router Protocol)
   • DTP (Dynamic Trunking Protocol)

6. A server sits in its own dedicated VLAN off the core switch, separate from the PC VLANs. What is the main design benefit of putting servers in a dedicated VLAN rather than mixing them into an existing user VLAN?

   • It is required for the server to receive an IP address at all
   • It allows traffic to and from the server to be isolated, separately secured with access control, and given its own broadcast domain apart from end-user traffic
   • It removes the need for the server to have a default gateway
   • It automatically doubles the server's available bandwidth

7. A PC in VLAN 10 cannot reach a PC in VLAN 30. Both can ping their own SVI. The core has connected routes for both subnets, no ACL blocks the traffic, and a core-sourced ping reaches both PCs. What should be checked next?

   • The PCs' default gateway addresses, to confirm each is pointing to its own VLAN's SVI address
   • The VTP domain name, which has no effect on end-to-end reachability once VLANs exist
   • The trunk encapsulation type, which cannot affect routed connectivity between SVIs
   • The switch's hostname