Network Associate 200-301, IT certifications, 25%

Domain 2: Switching and Network Access

How switches connect to each other, to routers, and to end devices: trunks, EtherChannel bundles, switched virtual interfaces, and access ports with VLANs and power over Ethernet. It includes checking documentation against neighbor discovery, basic troubleshooting with show commands, ping, traceroute and packet capture, and Rapid PVST+.

Position: 2 of 5 domains
Published weighting: 25% in the official framework
Topics covered: 5 topics in this guide

What is covered

Topics inside this domain.

These topics describe the scope students most often review for this part of Network Associate 200-301. Treat them as a study checklist rather than an exhaustive list of what a single exam form can sample.

Trunks, EtherChannel, and switched virtual interfaces: 802.1Q trunks, LACP port channels, and routing between VLANs on a Layer 3 switch.
Access ports for end devices: Assigning VLANs and power over Ethernet for computers, phones, printers, IoT devices, and access points.
Neighbor discovery and documentation: Using CDP and LLDP output to confirm what a network diagram says is connected.
Layer 2 and Layer 3 troubleshooting: Show commands, logs, extended ping, traceroute, and packet captures to isolate a fault.
Rapid PVST+: Root bridge election, root and designated ports, and port states and roles in rapid spanning tree.

Study tips

How to practice Switching and Access.

Section-specific guidance that follows from how this material is usually tested.

Build a small lab with two switches and a router, and configure a trunk, a port channel, and inter-VLAN routing from memory.
Practice predicting the spanning-tree root and each port's role before checking the output.
Read neighbor-discovery output against a diagram and find the mismatch; the exam favors that kind of check.

Where this fits

Domain 2: Switching and Network Access is 2 of 5 domains in the Network Associate 200-301 guide, and it carries a published weighting of 25% in the official framework. Use the full guide to balance it against everything else you have to review.

Back to the Network Associate 200-301 guide Official exam information

Sample Switching and Access questions

Practice questions, not yet expert-reviewed

Original practice questions written to the published framework for this section. No expert has reviewed them, and they are not taken from any official exam. Try each one before you open the answer.

Question 1Foundational
True or false: by default, a switch adds an 802.1Q tag to frames it sends in the native VLAN of a trunk.
1. ATrue
2. BFalse
Show answer
Answer: B. False
By default, frames in the native VLAN cross an 802.1Q trunk untagged, and the receiving switch places any untagged frame into its own native VLAN. That is why both ends should use the same native VLAN; a mismatch can carry frames into the wrong VLAN, and CDP warns about it.
Key insight: The native VLAN is the one VLAN a trunk sends untagged.
Question 2Foundational
Which interface command puts an IP phone's traffic in its own VLAN on an access port while the PC connected through the phone stays in the data VLAN?
1. Aswitchport access vlan
2. Bswitchport voice vlan
3. Cswitchport trunk native vlan
4. Dswitchport trunk allowed vlan
Show answer
Answer: B. switchport voice vlan
switchport voice vlan tells the phone, through CDP or LLDP-MED, which VLAN to tag its voice frames with, while the PC's untagged frames stay in the VLAN set by switchport access vlan. The trunk commands do not apply because the port stays an access port.
Key insight: One access port, two VLANs: access vlan for data and voice vlan for the phone.
Question 3Intermediate
Your diagram shows SW1's Gig 0/1 cabled to SW2, but show cdp neighbors on SW1 lists Device ID SW3 with Local Intrfce Gig 0/1 and Port ID Gig 0/24. What is SW1's Gig 0/1 actually connected to?
1. APort Gig 0/1 on SW2, as the diagram shows
2. BPort Gig 0/24 on SW2
3. CPort Gig 0/1 on SW3
4. DPort Gig 0/24 on SW3
Show answer
Answer: D. Port Gig 0/24 on SW3
In CDP output, Local Intrfce is the port on the switch where you ran the command and Port ID is the neighbor's port, so SW1's Gig 0/1 reaches SW3's Gig 0/24. CDP reports what is actually cabled, so either the diagram is out of date or the cable is in the wrong place.
Key insight: Local Intrfce is your port; Port ID is the neighbor's port.
Question 4Advanced
During an extended ping from a router, which setting makes the echo requests carry the router's LAN interface address, so the test also proves the far end has a route back to that LAN?
1. ADatagram size
2. BRepeat count
3. CSource address
4. DType of service
Show answer
Answer: C. Source address
By default a router sources a ping from the interface it sends it out of, so a reply only proves the far end can reach that link. Setting the source address to a LAN interface makes the far end reply to the LAN address, which also checks the return route; changing the repeat count or datagram size does not change which address is tested.
Key insight: Ping from the LAN interface to test the route back, not just the next link.
Question 5Intermediate
Four switches run Rapid PVST+ in VLAN 10 with these configured bridge priorities and MAC addresses: SW1 24576 and 0000.0c99.9999, SW2 32768 and 0000.0c00.0001, SW3 28672 and 0000.0c00.0005, and SW4 32768 and 0000.0c00.0002. Which switch becomes the root bridge for VLAN 10?
1. ASW1
2. BSW2
3. CSW3
4. DSW4
Show answer
Answer: A. SW1
The root is the switch with the lowest bridge ID, which compares priority first and uses the MAC address only to break a tie. SW1's priority of 24576 is the lowest, so it wins even though its MAC address is the highest; SW2 would win only if every priority were equal.
Key insight: Lowest priority wins the root election; the lowest MAC only breaks ties.

Continue through Network Associate 200-301

Practice Switching and Access deliberately.

Create your Arcade Academy workspace to turn this topic list into spaced-repetition reviews, linked notes, and progress you can act on.

Create your account

Domain 2: Switching and Network Access