This is the free Comptia CNX-001 practice question bank —
50 of 81 total questions, each with a full explanation, free to
read with no signup required. Updated 2026-10-03.
Every answer is verified against official Comptia documentation —
see our methodology.
Question 1
A network engineer is setting up guest access on a Wi-Fi network. After a recent network analysis, the engineer discovered that a user could access the guest network and attack the corporate network, since the networks share the same VLAN. Which of the following should the engineer do to prevent an attack like this one from happening?
A. Configure Layer 2 client isolation for the wireless network.
B. Set up a MAC filtering rule and add the MAC addresses of all corporate devices to the allow list.
C. Set up a strong password on the guest wireless network.
D. Set up a captive portal so all guest users have to register before gaining access to the wireless network.
Show Answer
Correct Answer: A
Explanation: Layer 2 client isolation prevents guest wireless clients from communicating directly with other clients on the same wireless network, reducing the ability to reach or attack corporate devices sharing the VLAN. Strong passwords and captive portals control access to Wi-Fi but do not isolate guest traffic; MAC filtering is also not a reliable security boundary. A separate guest VLAN with appropriate access controls would be preferable when available.
Question 2
A call center company provides its services through a VoIP infrastructure. Recently, the call center set up an application to manage its documents on a cloud application. The application is causing recurring audio losses for VoIP callers. The network administrator needs to fix the issue with the least expensive solution. Which of the following is the best approach?
A. Adding a second internet link and physically splitting voice and data networks into different routes
B. Configuring QoS rules at the internet router to prioritize the VoIP calls
C. Creating two VLANs, one for voice and the other for data
D. Setting up VoIP devices to use a voice codec with a higher compression rate
Show Answer
Correct Answer: B
Explanation: Configure QoS on the existing internet router to prioritize VoIP packets over the cloud document application’s traffic. This is the least expensive option because it addresses congestion without adding a second internet link or requiring significant infrastructure changes.
Question 3
A network architect is working on a physical network design template for a small education institution's satellite campus that is not yet built. The new campus location will consist of two small buildings with classrooms, one screening room with audiovisual equipment, and 200 seats for students. Which of the following enterprise network designs should the architect suggest?
A. Hybrid
B. Dual-layer
C. Three-tier
D. Collapsed core
Show Answer
Correct Answer: D
Explanation: A collapsed-core design combines the core and distribution functions, making it a practical, cost-effective choice for a small campus with two buildings. A separate three-tier design is generally better suited to larger, more complex networks.
Question 4
A SaaS company's new service currently is being provided through four servers. The company's end users are having connection issues, which is affecting about 25% of the connections. Which of the following is most likely the root cause of this issue?
A. The service is using round-robin load balancing through a DNS server with one server down.
B. The service is using weighted load balancing with 40% of the traffic on server A, 20% on server B, 20% on server C, and server D is down.
C. The service is using a least-connection load-balancing method with one server down.
D. Load balancing is configured with a health check in front of these servers, and one of these servers is unavailable.
Show Answer
Correct Answer: A
Explanation: With round-robin DNS across four servers and no mechanism removing the unavailable server, about one in four DNS responses can direct users to that server, matching the roughly 25% connection failure rate.
Question 5
A network engineer at an e-commerce organization must improve the following dashboard due to a performance issue on the website:
Which of the following is the most useful information to add to the dashboard for the operations team's?
A. 404 errors
B. Concurrent users
C. Number of orders
D. Number of active incidents
Show Answer
Correct Answer: B
Explanation: Concurrent users show the load placed on the website and help operations correlate traffic levels with resource usage and performance degradation.
Question 6
A network administrator must connect a remote building at a manufacturing plant to the main building via a wireless connection. Which of the following should the administrator choose to get the greatest possible range from the wireless connection? (Choose two.)
A. 2.4GHz
B. 5GHz
C. 6GHz
D. Omnidirectional antenna
E. Patch antenna
F. Built-in antenna
Show Answer
Correct Answer: A, E
Explanation: 2.4 GHz generally travels farther than 5 GHz or 6 GHz, especially over a long-distance link. A patch antenna is directional, concentrating signal toward the remote building and providing greater effective range than an omnidirectional or built-in antenna.
Question 7
An administrator must ensure that credit card numbers are not contained in any outside messaging or file transfers from the organization. Which of the following controls meets this requirement?
A. Intrusion detection system
B. Egress filtering
C. Data loss prevention
D. Encryption in transit
Show Answer
Correct Answer: C
Explanation: Data loss prevention (DLP) detects sensitive information such as credit card numbers in outgoing messages and file transfers, then can block or quarantine the transmission. Egress filtering controls network traffic by rules but does not inherently identify sensitive data content.
Question 8
A company provides an API that runs on the public cloud for its customers. A fixed number of VMs host the APIs. During peak hours, the company notices a spike in usage that results in network communication speeds slowing down for all customers. The management team has decided that access for all customers should be fair and accessible at all times. Which of the following is the most cost-effective way to address this issue?
A. Use an allow list for customers using APIs.
B. Increase the number of VMs running APIs.
C. Enable throttling on APIs.
D. Increase the MTU on the VMs.
Show Answer
Correct Answer: C
Explanation: Enable API throttling to limit excessive requests and distribute available capacity more fairly among customers. It is typically more cost-effective than adding VMs; an allow list restricts who can use the API, and increasing MTU does not address usage spikes.
Question 9
An organization with an on-premises data center is adopting additional cloud-based solutions. The organization wants to keep communication secure between remote employees' devices and workloads. Which of the following ZTA features best achieves this goal?
A. Secure service edge
B. Cloud access security broker
C. Principle of least privilege
D. Identity as the perimeter
Show Answer
Correct Answer: A
Explanation: Secure service edge (SSE) provides cloud-delivered security capabilities, including zero-trust network access, to protect remote users’ connections to workloads across cloud and on-premises environments.
Question 10
A cafe uses a tablet-based point-of-sale system. Customers are complaining that their food is taking too long to arrive. During an investigation, the following is noticed:
Every kitchen printer did not print the orders.
Payments are processing correctly.
The cloud-based system has record of the orders.
This issue occurred when the cafe was busy.
Which of the following is the best way to mitigate this issue?
A. Updating the application
B. Adding an access point exclusively for the kitchen
C. Upgrading the kitchen printers' wireless dongles
D. Assigning the kitchen printers static IP addresses
Show Answer
Correct Answer: B
Explanation: Since the orders are recorded in the cloud and payments work, the POS application and order processing are functioning. The failure occurred across all kitchen printers during a busy period, suggesting congestion on the shared wireless network. A dedicated kitchen access point can reduce competition for wireless capacity and improve print-job reliability.
$19
Get all 81 questions with detailed answers and explanations
Instant download HTML + PDF delivered the moment payment clears.
Secure Stripe checkout we never see or store your card details.
7-day refund if files are defective see our refund policy.