Top 135 Networking Interview Questions and Answers
Top 135 Networking Interview Questions and Answers
The below list covers 130+ important interview questions for Networking for
freshers candidates as well as Networking interview questions for
experienced. This detailed guide of Network Engineer interview questions
will help you to crack your Job interview easily.
A link refers to the connectivity between two devices. It includes the type of
cables and protocols used for one device to be able to communicate with
the other.
There are 7 OSI layers: 1) Physical Layer, 2) Data Link Layer, 3) Network
Layer, 4) Transport Layer, 5) Session Layer, 6) Presentation Layer, and 7)
Application Layer.
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Top 135 Networking Interview Questions and Answers 01/29/21 12:31 a. m.
4) What is a LAN?
LAN network
LAN stands for Local Area Network. It refers to the connection between
computers and other network devices that are located within a small
physical location.
5) What is a node?
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Router
Routers can connect two or more network segments. These are intelligent
network devices that store information in its routing tables, such as paths,
hops, and bottlenecks. With this info, they can determine the best path for
data transfer. Routers operate at the OSI Network Layer.
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VPN means Virtual Private Network, a technology that allows a secure tunnel
to be created across a network such as the Internet. For example, VPNs
allow you to establish a secure dial-up connection to a remote server.
15) What is the job of the Network Layer under the OSI reference
model?
The Network layer is responsible for data routing, packet switching, and
control of network congestion. Routers operate under this layer.
16) How does a network topology affect your decision to set a network?
RIP, short for Routing Information Protocol is used by routers to send data
from one network to another. It efficiently manages routing data by
broadcasting its routing table to all other routers within the network. It
determines the network distance in units of hops.
There are several ways to do this. Install a reliable and updated anti-virus
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program on all computers. Make sure firewalls are setup and configured
correctly. User authentication will also help a lot. All these combined would
make a highly secured network.
NIC is short for Network Interface Card. This is a peripheral card that is
attached to a PC in order to connect to a network. Every NIC has its own
MAC address that identifies the PC on the network.
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WAN network
The physical layer does the conversion from data bits to the electrical signal,
and vice versa. This is where network devices and cable types are
considered and setup.
There are four layers: 1) The Network Layer, 2) Internet Layer, 3) Transport
Layer, and 4) Application Layer.
TCP/IP Layers
23) What are proxy servers, and how do they protect computer
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networks?
Proxy servers primarily prevent external users who are identifying the IP
addresses of an internal network. Without knowledge of the correct IP
address, even the physical location of the network cannot be identified.
Proxy servers can make a network virtually invisible to external users.
This layer provides the protocols and means for two devices on the network
to communicate with each other by holding a session. This includes setting
up the session, managing information exchange during the session, and
tear-down process upon termination of the session.
The 10 refers to the data transfer rate. In this case, it is 10Mbps. The word
Base refers to baseband, as opposed to broadband.
Private IP addresses are assigned for use on intranets. These addresses are
used for internal networks and are not routable on external public networks.
These ensure that no conflicts are present among internal networks. At the
same time, the same range of private IP addresses is reusable for multiple
intranets since they do not "see" each other.
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30) What is OSI, and what role does it play in computer networks?
31) What is the purpose of cables being shielded and having twisted
pairs?
internal network.
34) What is the equivalent layer or layers of the TCP/IP Application layer
in terms of the OSI reference model?
The TCP/IP Application layer has three counterparts on the OSI model: 1)
Session Layer, 2) Presentation Layer, and 3) Application Layer.
By looking at the first octet of any given IP address, you can identify whether
it's Class A, B, or C. If the first octet begins with a 0 bit, that address is Class
A. If it begins with bits 10 then that address is a Class B address. If it begins
with 110, then it's a Class C network.
OSPF, or Open Shortest Path First, is a link-state routing protocol that uses
routing tables to determine the best possible path for data exchange.
Star topology consists of a central hub that connects to nodes. This is one of
the easiest to set up and maintain.
Star Topology
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
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One major disadvantage of star topology is that once the central Hub or
switch gets damaged, the entire network becomes unusable.
Tracert is a Windows utility program that can use to trace the route taken by
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data from the router to the destination network. It also shows the number of
hops taken during the entire transmission route.
Accessing the resources that are shared by one of the workstations on the
network takes a performance hit.
DHCP is short for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. Its main task is to
assign an IP address to devices across the network automatically. It first
checks for the next available address not yet taken by any device, then
assigns this to a network device.
The main task of the ARP or Address Resolution Protocol is to map a known
IP address to a MAC layer address.
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Routers have a built-in console that lets you configure different settings, like
security and data logging. You can assign restrictions to computers, such as
what resources it is allowed access or what particular time of the day, they
can browse the Internet. You can even put restrictions on what websites are
not viewable across the entire network.
51) What protocol can be applied when you want to transfer files
between different platforms, such as UNIX systems and Windows
servers?
Use FTP (File Transfer Protocol) for file transfers between such different
servers. This is possible because FTP is platform-independent.
Default gateways provide means for the local networks to connect to the
external network. The default gateway for connecting to the external
network is usually the address of the external router port.
Good passwords are made up of not just letters, but by combining letters
and numbers. A password that combines uppercase and lowercase letters is
favorable than one that uses all upper case or all lower-case letters.
Passwords must be not words that can easily be guessed by hackers, such
as dates, names, favorites, etc. Longer passwords are also better than short
ones.
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The proper termination for unshielded twisted pair network cable is 100
ohms.
For a Class C network, the number of usable Network ID bits is 21. The
number of possible network IDs is 2 raised to 21 or 2,097,152. The number of
host IDs per network ID is 2 raised to 8 minus 2, or 254.
57) What happens when you use cables longer than the prescribed
length?
Cables that are too long would result in signal loss. It means that data
transmission and reception would be affected because the signal degrades
over length.
Client-server problems
Application conflicts
Error in configuration
Protocol mismatch
Security issues
User policy and rights issues
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P2P Network
Peer to peer (P2P) are networks that do not rely on a server. All PCs on this
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DNS is the Domain Name System. The main function of this network service
is to provide host names to TCP/IP address resolution.
63) What advantages does fiber optics have over other media?
Hub Switch
A hub operates on the physical layer. A switch operates on the data link layer.
Hubs perform frame flooding that can It performs broadcast, then the unicast
be unicast, multicast, or broadcast. and multicast as needed.
Just a singular domain of collision is Varied ports have separate collision
present in a hub. domains.
The transmission mode is Half-duplex The transmission mode is Full duplex
Hubs operate as a Layer 1 device per Network switches help you to operate
the OSI model. at Layer 2 of the OSI model.
To connect a network of personal
Allow connecting multiple devices and
computers should be joined through a
ports.
central hub.
Uses electrical signal orbits Uses frame & packet
Does not offer Spanning-Tree Multiple Spanning-Tree is possible
Collisions occur mostly in setups using No collisions occur in a full-duplex
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hubs. switch.
Hub is a passive device A switch is an active device
Switches use CAM (Content Accessible
A network hub can't store MAC
Memory) that can be accessed by ASIC
addresses.
(Application Specific Integrated Chips).
Not an intelligent device Intelligent device
Its speed is up to 10 Mbps 10/100 Mbps, 1 Gbps, 10 Gbps
Does not use software Has software for administration
65) What are the different network protocols that are supported by
Windows RRAS services?
There are three main network protocols supported: NetBEUI, TCP/IP, and
IPX.
66) What are the maximum networks and hosts in class A, B, and C
network?
For Class A, there are 126 possible networks and 16,777,214 hosts. For Class
B, there are 16,384 possible networks and 65,534 hosts. For Class C, there
are 2,097,152 possible networks and 254 hosts
68) What protocols fall under the Application layer of the TCP/IP stack?
The following are the protocols under the TCP/IP Application layer: FTP,
TFTP, Telnet, and SMTP.
69) You need to connect two computers for file sharing. Is it possible to
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Yes, you can connect two computers, using only one cable. A crossover type
cable can be used in this scenario. In this setup, the data transmit pin of one
cable is connected to the data receive pin of the other cable, and vice versa.
74) When you move the NIC cards from one PC to another PC, does the
MAC address gets transferred as well?
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Yes, that's because MAC addresses are hard-wired into the NIC circuitry, not
the PC. This also means that a PC can have a different MAC address when
another one replaced the NIC card.
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SMTP is short for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. This protocol deals with all
internal mail and provides the necessary mail delivery services on the TCP/IP
protocol stack.
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The mesh topology has a unique network design in which each computer on
the network connects to every other. It is developing a P2P (point-to-point)
connection between all the devices of the network. It offers a high level of
redundancy, so even if one network cable fails, data still has an alternative
path to reach its destination.
Partial Mesh Topology: In this type of topology, most of the devices are
connected almost similarly as full topology. The only difference is that few
devices are connected with just two or three devices.
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Full Mesh Topology: In this topology, every node or device are directly
connected with each other.
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A common way of dealing with such a problem is to use repeaters and hubs
because it will help regenerate the signal and therefore prevent signal loss.
Checking if cables are properly terminated is also a must.
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administration?
Profiles are the configuration settings made for each user. A profile may be
created that puts a user in a group, for example.
There are 4 protocols that are being managed by this layer. These are ICMP,
IGMP, IP, and ARP.
A VLAN is required because at the switch level. There is only one broadcast
domain. It means whenever a new user is connected to switch. This
information is spread throughout the network. VLAN on switch helps to
create a separate broadcast domain at the switch level. It is used for security
purposes.
with four repeaters. Out of these five segments, only three segments can be
populated with nodes.
Here are some major differences between TCP and UDP protocols:
TCP UDP
It is a connection-oriented protocol. It is a connectionless protocol.
TCP reads data as streams of bytes, UDP messages contain packets that
and the message is transmitted to were sent one by one. It also checks for
segment boundaries. integrity at the arrival time.
TCP messages make their way across It is not connection-based, so one
the Internet from one computer to program can send lots of packets to
another. another.
UDP protocol has no fixed order
TCP rearranges data packets in the
because all packets are independent of
specific order.
each other.
UDP is faster as error recovery is not
The speed for TCP is slower.
attempted.
Header size is 20 bytes The header size is 8 bytes.
TCP is heavy-weight. TCP needs three UDP is lightweight. There are no
packets to set up a socket connection tracking connections, ordering of
before any user data can be sent. messages, etc.
TCP does error checking and also UDP performs error checking, but it
makes error recovery. discards erroneous packets.
Acknowledgment segments No Acknowledgment segments
Using handshake protocol like SYN, No handshake (so connectionless
SYN-ACK, ACK protocol)
TCP is reliable as it guarantees delivery The delivery of data to the destination
of data to the destination router. can't be guaranteed in UDP.
TCP offers extensive error checking
mechanisms because it provides flow UDP has just a single error checking
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The decoder is a type of circuit that converts the encoded data to its original
format. It also converts the digital signal into an analog signal.
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The OSI model was started in February 1980. In 802.XX, '80' stands for the
year 1980, and '2' represents the month of February.
The source route is a sequence of IP addresses that helps you to identify the
route a datagram. You can include the source route in the IP datagram
header.
The full form of EGP is Exterior Gateway Protocol. It is the protocol of the
routers. It is the neighboring autonomous systems that help you to identify
the set of networks that you will able to reach within or via each independent
system.
When a computer in the network listen and receive the signal, they are called
passive topology.
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Hamming code is a liner code that is useful for error detection up to two
immediate bit errors. It is capable of single-bit errors.
Satellites
Computer Memory
Modems
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PlasmaCAM
Open connectors
Shielding wire
Embedded Processor
129) What are the important differences between MAC address and IP
address
MAC IP address
The MAC address stands for Media IP address stands for Internet Protocol
Access Control Address. Address.
It consists of a 48-bit address. It consists of a 32-bit address.
MAC address works at the link layer of IP address works at the network layer
the OSI model. of OSI model.
It is referred to as a physical address. It is referred to as a logical address.
You can retrieve the MAC address of You can retrieve the MAC address of
any device using ARP protocol. any device RARP protocol.
In IP, IPv4 uses A, B, C, D, and E
Classes are not used in MAC address.
classes.
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Analog Signal
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Digital Signal
132) What are the differences between analog and digital signal?
Here are the main differences between Analog and Digital Signal:
Analog Digital
An analog signal is a continuous signal Digital signals are time separated
that represents physical signals which are generated using
measurements. digital modulation.
It is denoted by sine waves It is denoted by square waves.
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It uses a continuous range of values The Digital signal uses discrete 0 and 1
that help you to represent information. to represent information.
The analog signal bandwidth is low The digital signal bandwidth is high.
Analog hardware never offers flexible Digital hardware offers flexibility in
implementation. implementation.
It is suited for audio and video It is suited for Computing and digital
transmission. electronics.
The Analog signal doesn't offer any Digital signal has a finite number, i.e., 0
fixed range. and 1.
MAN network
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The main aim of the Modem is to produce a signal that can be transmitted
easily and decoded to reproduce the digital data in its original form. Modems
are also used for transmitting analog signals, from Light Emitting Diodes
(LED) to radio.
Modem
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