What the session reproduces
| Condition | This timed set | Cisco’s exam |
|---|---|---|
| Clock | 1.2 minutes per frame, one sitting | 120 minutes |
| Length | shown in the brief before you start | not published; see how many questions the CCNA has |
| Mix | drawn across all six Cisco domains, close to their v1.1 weights | weighted 20/20/25/10/15/10 by domain |
| Verdicts | held until you finish; picks stay changeable | a score report after the exam |
| Result | raw percentage plus a table by study area | pass or fail; the score report shows that exam’s passing score, explained on the CCNA passing score page |
The set has no labs or drag-and-drop items. For command-line practice, Cisco points candidates to Packet Tracer and to Cisco Modeling Labs, which has a free tier.
Set up the sitting
- Block out the full clock in one stretch; a sitting split in two measures nothing.
- Close your notes and other tabs, and keep a blank sheet for subnet arithmetic.
- Decide in advance how long you will spend on a frame before you commit to a guess and move on.
- Keep a list of the frames you guessed on, even the ones you get right; they belong in the review.
The timed capture session
Read the brief, check how the frames spread across study areas, then press Start. The clock bar stays pinned while you work.
Practice frames written by our editors for study, not Cisco items. The 200-301 exam itself mixes multiple choice, drag-and-drop and lab-style items.
Frame 001 of 060 · 0 set
Keys
1–5 or A–E pick an option (on choose-N frames they toggle; then Check answer) · ← → previous / next frame · ↑ ↓ move in the frame list
Before you start
- This set: 60 frames in 72 minutes, on one clock.
- No verdicts or notes while the clock runs; you can change a pick until you finish. Choose-N frames score only when every pick is right.
- At the end you get a raw percentage and a breakdown by study area, then a review of every frame with its notes.
The real 200-301 exam, per Cisco: CCNA exam page (checked October 29, 2026): 120 minutes. Cisco does not publish a fixed number of questions for 200-301.
| Study area | Frames | Blueprint |
|---|---|---|
| L1 Components & cabling | 9 | ≈9% |
| IPv4 IPv4 & subnetting | 2 | ≈5% |
| IPv6 IPv6 addressing | 1 | ≈3% |
| L2 Switching & VLANs | 7 | ≈8% |
| STP STP & EtherChannel | 1 | ≈4% |
| WLAN Wireless LANs | 3 | ≈11% |
| L3 Routing & static routes | 8 | ≈15% |
| OSPF OSPF & FHRP | 7 | ≈10% |
| SVC NAT, DHCP & DNS | 3 | ≈3% |
| MGMT Management & QoS | 5 | ≈9% |
| SEC Security & VPNs | 7 | ≈9% |
| ACL ACLs & L2 security | 1 | ≈3% |
| API Automation & APIs | 6 | ≈10% |
Preview the first 10 frames of Timed set
No.001 · L1 Components & cabling
Which two devices need to be connected using a straight-through cable rather than a cross-over cable? (Choose two.)
- A. PC to PC
- B. PC to switch
- C. Router to hub
- D. Router to router
Best answer and notes
Best answers: B and C
A. PC to PC joins two devices that transmit on the same pins, so the classic answer is a crossover cable.
B. Correct: a PC and a switch transmit on different pin pairs, so a straight-through cable links them.
C. Correct. A hub, like a switch, is wired the opposite way from a router, so router to hub is a straight-through connection.
D. Router to router connects like devices, which classically needs a crossover cable.
No.002 · IPv4 IPv4 & subnetting
Which two of the following are valid IPv4 addresses? (Choose two.)
- A. 256.100.50.25
- B. 192.168.1.1
- C. 10.0.0.1
- D. 192.168.1
Best answer and notes
Best answers: B and C
A. 256 is out of range, because each octet is 8 bits and can only hold 0 to 255.
B. Correct: four octets, each within 0 to 255, so this is a valid (private, RFC 1918) address.
C. Correct — four octets in range; 10.0.0.1 sits in the private 10.0.0.0/8 block.
D. Only three octets are given; a dotted-decimal IPv4 address needs four.
No.003 · L2 Switching & VLANs
What is the primary purpose of VLANs in a network?
- A. To encrypt data for secure communication
- B. To provide a backup power source for network devices
- C. To divide a network into separate broadcast domains
- D. To increase the speed of data transfers over long distances
Best answer and notes
Best answer: C
A. VLANs separate traffic logically but do not encrypt it; confidentiality needs something like IPsec or MACsec.
B. Backup power comes from a UPS or redundant supplies; VLANs are a switching feature.
C. Correct: each VLAN is its own broadcast domain, so broadcasts stay inside it and traffic between VLANs must be routed.
D. VLANs don’t make links faster or longer; they only split one switched network into separate logical segments.
No.004 · STP STP & EtherChannel
What feature prevents a switch port from becoming a root port in a spanning tree topology?
- A. BPDU Guard
- B. Loop Guard
- C. Root Guard
- D. Port Security
Best answer and notes
Best answer: C
A. BPDU Guard err-disables a PortFast edge port that receives any BPDU; it protects access ports rather than blocking the root port role.
B. Loop Guard acts when BPDUs stop arriving on a non-designated port, holding it loop-inconsistent; it doesn’t react to a superior BPDU.
C. Correct: Root Guard puts a port in root-inconsistent state when a superior BPDU arrives, so that port can never become the root port.
D. Port security limits which MAC addresses can use a port and has nothing to do with spanning-tree roles.
No.005 · WLAN Wireless LANs
In the design of a wireless LAN within the 2.4 GHz band, why is the selection of nonoverlapping channels critical?
- A. It increases the effective range of the access point
- B. It maximizes the available bandwidth by merging adjacent channels
- C. It reduces the need for WPA encryption
- D. It minimizes interference between nearby access points
Best answer and notes
Best answer: D
A. Channel choice doesn’t change transmit power or range; overlap only affects how much nearby APs interfere with each other.
B. Bonding channels is a separate technique, and in 2.4 GHz it eats most of the band; non-overlapping planning does the reverse.
C. Encryption is a security setting and is needed whatever channels are chosen.
D. Correct: 2.4 GHz has only three non-overlapping 20 MHz channels (1, 6 and 11 in North America), so neighboring cells must use them to avoid interference.
No.006 · L3 Routing & static routes
An administrator wants their router to send all traffic destined for unknown networks out interface G0/0. What command should they use to achieve this?
- A. route add default-route G0/0
- B. default-route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 G0/0
- C. ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 G0/0
- D. ip default-gateway 0.0.0.0 G0/0
Best answer and notes
Best answer: C
A. route add is a Windows or Linux host command, not IOS configuration.
B. IOS has no default-route command in this form; static routes, the default included, start with ip route.
C. Correct: ip route 0.0.0.0 0.0.0.0 G0/0 creates a static default route, so unknown destinations leave through G0/0.
D. ip default-gateway is for devices that don’t route, such as a Layer 2 switch, and takes only an address, not a mask and interface.
No.007 · OSPF OSPF & FHRP
What command is used to verify the interfaces participating in OSPF?
- A. show ip interface ospf
- B. show ip ospf interface
- C. show ospf-enabled interfaces
- D. show ip protocols interface
Best answer and notes
Best answer: B
A. show ip interface shows IP settings per interface, but ospf is not a valid keyword after it.
B. Correct: show ip ospf interface lists each OSPF-enabled interface with its area, cost, network type, state, timers and DR/BDR.
C. There is no show ospf-enabled interfaces command in IOS.
D. show ip protocols lists the networks and passive interfaces of each routing process, but interface is not a valid keyword there.
No.008 · SVC NAT, DHCP & DNS
Which command verifies DNS settings?
- A. show routing
- B. show interfaces
- C. show arp
- D. show hosts
Best answer and notes
Best answer: D
A. show routing isn’t an IOS command; the routing table is shown with show ip route.
B. show interfaces gives Layer 1 and 2 status and counters, not name-server settings.
C. show arp maps IP addresses to MAC addresses and says nothing about DNS.
D. Correct: show hosts lists the default domain, the lookup setting, the name servers and the cached host-to-address entries.
No.009 · MGMT Management & QoS
Which statement best describes the role of Per-Hop Behavior (PHB) in the context of Quality of Service within IP services?
- A. PHB establishes NAT translations for high-priority traffic.
- B. PHB defines how each hop treats packets for QoS.
- C. PHB assigns static IP addresses to critical devices.
- D. PHB filters out unwanted SNMP traffic.
Best answer and notes
Best answer: B
A. NAT translates addresses and has no role in how each router queues or prioritizes a packet.
B. Correct: a PHB is the forwarding treatment (queuing, scheduling, drop priority) that each router applies to a given DSCP value.
C. Static addressing is a separate design decision; QoS behaviors are tied to markings, not to address assignment.
D. Filtering SNMP is an ACL job; PHBs describe how marked traffic is forwarded, not what is blocked.
No.010 · SEC Security & VPNs
Which security assessment method identifies and quantifies risks to network assets based on threat likelihood and potential impact?
- A. Vulnerability scanning
- B. Risk assessment
- C. Security auditing
- D. Penetration testing
Best answer and notes
Best answer: B
A. A vulnerability scan finds weaknesses in systems, but it doesn’t weigh how likely a threat is or how much damage it would do.
B. Correct: a risk assessment weighs threat likelihood against impact for each asset, which ranks what to fix first.
C. An audit checks controls and configurations against a policy or standard; it is compliance-focused rather than a risk calculation.
D. A penetration test actively exploits weaknesses to show what an attacker could reach; it doesn’t quantify overall risk.
Reading the session report
Treat the raw percentage as a reading for the day, and expect it to move. The table by study area is the useful part: a study area well below your overall rate is where the next week of study goes, and its row links straight to that page of the CCNA study guide.
Then open Review every answer. Each frame shows the key with a line under every choice saying why it holds or where it breaks, so the frames you got right by elimination get a second look too. Run the set again only after you have worked the weak study areas, or you end up rehearsing remembered answers.
About the timed set
Is this a CCNA exam simulator?
It simulates the timing and the mixed order. It does not simulate a device: the labs Cisco lists among its item types need a real or emulated command line, such as Packet Tracer or Cisco Modeling Labs. Commercial practice-exam software, Boson’s ExSim-Max among them, is compared on the study materials page.
Why 1.2 minutes per frame?
Cisco states the exam time (120 minutes) but no item count, so no per-item pace can be derived from Cisco’s figures. 1.2 minutes is our steady working pace for multiple-choice frames, and it leaves no slack for lingering.
Can I take it more than once?
Yes. Start again reloads the same set, and the untimed CCNA practice test holds a different mix for practice between sittings.