Here are some facts regarding this portion of the exam:
- You must complete this portion of the exam before you start the traditional configuration portion.
- You have a total of 30 minutes to complete this section, you may finish early if you like and immediately begin your configuration section.
- You will receive 4 questions via the computer and you must provide short answers using the computer interface. The questions are not oral in nature. Typical responses require 4 to 5 words at most.
- Spelling and/or grammar does not count against you.
- The questions are manually graded by a proctor. If you purchase an exam re-read, they will re-grade your question responses.
- You may not return to the short answer questions once you have begun the configuration portion of the lab exam.
- You will not receive a score when you complete this section, but you must pass this portion to pass the CCIE. You will receive your score in the open-ended section if you fail the exam. The score is reported as 0% or 100% (pass or fail). You may only miss one question in the section in order to pass.
- Most students finish the 4 to 5 questions in approximately 12 minutes.
- The configuration portion of the exam has been reduced to accommodate this initial 30 minutes.
- You still have a total of 8 hours that makeup the open-ended questions and the configuration portion.
- You may not access the DOC-CD to answer these questions.
- Using materials for the CCIE Written is an excellent method of studying for the Short Answer questions.
Here are some samples for the many, many different open-ended questions Cisco could ask for the R/S track. Please notice there is no need for panic if you are using one of our recommended study approaches.
Bridging and Switching
- What is the size of the 802.1Q tag?
- Examine the diagram shown, describe the flow of traffic in VLAN 12 from Switch A to Switch D.
- What is the trunk setting that allows the port to trunk only if the port receives the proper DTP frames?
IP IGP Routing
- What are the five possible metric components for EIGRP and which two are used by default?
- Given the network diagram shown, what is the path traffic will take from Router A to Router B?
- OSPF bases cost on what value?
- Which routing protocol uses a destination Multicast address of 224.0.0.9?
BGP
- What issues can the use of a peer group solve in BGP?
- What are the default administrative distances for BGP?
IP and IOS Features
- How can a Cisco router assist a client PC to obtain a DHCP address from a DHCP server located on a remote subnet?
- What technology allows a router to respond to the name resolution request of a host as if it were the destination host itself?
IP Multicast
- Which multicast PIM method uses a flood and prune approach?
- Which option for RP assignment is an open standard?
- What is the purpose of the override keyword when statically setting an RP?
QoS
- What happens to traffic in the priority queue of the LLQ method that exceeds the specified rate?
- Which bits of the ToS byte are used for DSCP markings?
- Between AF21 and AF32, which has the higher drop probability?
Security
- Given the access list and assignment shown in the diagram, what happens to Telnet traffic?
About Anthony Sequeira, #15626:
Anthony Sequeira brings decades of teaching, technical writing, and consulting experience to INE. Anthony began his career as an author and lecturer within the IT community, featuring best-selling titles for Microsoft and Cisco Press. Best known as one of the training voices for the revolutionary e-learning company called KnowledgeNet, Anthony now teaches online and in-classroom exclusively for INE. When not helping his students master Cisco networking, Anthony can be found at the poker tables, or flying the Florida skies in a Cessna.
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129 Responses to “CCIE R/S Lab Sample Open-Ended Exam Questions”
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Topics covered in Core Theory section were:
-IPv6
-IP Addressing
-(forget what the 3rd question was…)
-BGP
It looks like topics covered in written exam, so similar preparation as for the written should be sufficient or these question were more difficult ?
I don’t think they were significantly more difficult – the BGP question was easy enough, and the IPv6 question was probably answerable had I had more time – the other two I had never seen before. My biggest worry is that they ask something about some obscure routing protocol feature or multicast timer and I can’t recall it – with only 4 or 5 questions it doesn’t leave a lot of room for error. – Basically if you get even one question wrong, it seems like you’re toast. I don’t know if they would award partial points or not.
From what our students are reporting, prepping from written materials is perfect – but just make sure that you apply the Lab blueprint as you go through. In other words – they will not ask MPLS questions.
Also, you can miss one question and still pass the section. Miss two or more and you are toast for the whole day.
It looks like the level of knowledge needed to pass Open-Ended questions is similar to the written exam.
The problem by doing the written exam well in advance is to get hit by the forgetting curve (see wikipedia) when passing the lab. Practising for the lab focuses on using the technologies but doesn’t help to remember things that can be easily be found in Cisco Documentation/routers such as timers, packets structures, etc…
Will it be best to prepare for the lab first, when ready for the lab, prepare for the written, pass the written, then immediately after book the lab hopping to find an available seat asap?
Maybe an idea for your CCIE 3.0 program?
We are releasing a product within days to help with this new lab section – look for a blog post later today.
Thanks, it wasn’t long to wait:
http://blog.internetworkexpert.com/2009/03/05/test-drive-the-new-core-technology-simulation-product/
Pls Anthony, could you help provide answers to all the sample questions as this will help.
Bridging and Switching
• Explain the advantages of MSTP (802.1s).
MSTP, which uses RSTP for rapid convergence, enables VLANs to be grouped into a spanning-tree instance, with each instance having a spanning-tree topology independent of other spanning-tree instances. This architecture provides multiple forwarding paths for data traffic, enables load balancing, and reduces the number of spanning-tree instances required to support a large number of VLANs.
• Explain the advantages of RSTP (802.1w).
The RSTP takes advantage of point-to-point wiring and provides rapid convergence of the spanning tree. Reconfiguration of the spanning tree can occur in less than 1 second (in contrast to 50 seconds with the default settings in the IEEE 802.1D spanning tree).
• Explain the differences between 802.1Q and ISL.
-Native vlan is tageed in ISL and untagged in 802.1Q.
-ISL encapsulates IP packet while 802.1Q inserts a 4 byte tag.
IP IGP Routing
• Explain the advantages presented by the DUAL algorithm in EIGRP.
The DUAL finite state machine embodies the decision process for all route computations. It tracks all routes advertised by all neighbors. The distance information, known as a metric, is used by DUAL to select efficient loop free paths. DUAL selects routes to be inserted into a routing table based on feasible successors. A successor is a neighboring router used for packet forwarding that has a least cost path to a destination that is guaranteed not to be part of a routing loop. When there are no feasible successors but there are neighbors advertising the destination, a recomputation must occur. This is the process where a new successor is determined. The amount of time it takes to recompute the route affects the convergence time. Even though the recomputation is not processor-intensive, it is advantageous to avoid recomputation if it is not necessary. When a topology change occurs, DUAL will test for feasible successors. If there are feasible successors, it will use any it finds in order to avoid any unnecessary recomputation. Feasible successors are defined in more detail later in this document.
• Why does OSPF use a DR in an Ethernet LAN environment?
DR’s exist for the purpose of reducing network traffic by providing a source for routing updates, the DR maintains a complete topology table of the network and sends the updates to the other routers via multicast. All routers in an area will form a slave/master relationship with the DR. They will form adjacencies with the DR and BDR only. Every time a router sends an update, it sends it to the DR and BDR on the multicast address 224.0.0.6. The DR will then send the update out to all other routers in the area, to the multicast address 224.0.0.5. This way all the routers do not have to constantly update each other, and can rather get all their updates from a single source. The use of multicasting further reduces the network load. DRs and BDRs are always setup/elected on Broadcast networks (Ethernet). DR’s can also be elected on NBMA (Non-Broadcast Multi-Access) networks such as Frame Relay or ATM. DRs or BDRs are not elected on point-to-point links (such as a point-to-point WAN connection) because the two routers on either sides of the link must become fully adjacent and the bandwidth between them cannot be further optimized.
• Why does OSPF feature different network types for use in an NBMA area of your network?
IP and IOS Features
• How can a Cisco router assist a client PC to obtain a DHCP address from a DHCP server located on a remote subnet?
A DHCP relay agent is any host that forwards DHCP packets between clients and servers. Relay agents are used to forward requests and replies between clients and servers when they are not on the same physical subnet.
• What issue does HSRP help solve?
redundancy protocol for establishing a fault-tolerant default gateway,
IP Multicast
• Discuss issues that exist with the PIM Dense-Mode protocol.
Dense Mode Tradeoffs
*
Advantages
o Source trees fully distributed
o Optimal reverse paths/low delay
*
Disadvantages
o O(S x G) state requirement
o May carry (S,G) for every S in the internet
o (S,G) prune state even though not “on-tree”
o Data driven forwarding state construction
QoS
• Describe differences between Custom Queuing and Class-Based Weighted Fair Queuing.
-With CQ, bandwidth is allocated proportionally for each different class of traffic. CQ allows you to specify the number of bytes or packets to be drawn from the queue, which is especially useful on slow interfaces. 16 user queues
-WFQ offers dynamic, fair queueing that divides bandwidth across queues of traffic based on weights.One queue per class, up to 64 classes
• What are the advantages presented by DSCP markings when compared to the legacy IP Precedence approach?
Security
• Describe the basic operation of CBAC on a Cisco router.
CBAC works to provide network protection on multiple levels using the following functions:
•Traffic Filtering
•Traffic Inspection
•Alerts and Audit Trails
•Intrusion Prevention
Bridging and Switching
* What is the size of the 802.1Q tag?
-4 byte(The 802.1Q tag is 4 bytes. Therefore, the resulting Ethernet frame can be as large as 1522 bytes. The minimum size of the Ethernet frame with 802.1Q tagging is 68 bytes. )
-The ISL frame encapsulation is 30 bytes, and the minimum FDDI packet is 17 bytes. Therefore, the minimum ISL encapsulated packet for FDDI is 47 bytes. The maximum Token Ring packet is 18,000 bytes. Therefore, the maximum ISL packet is 18,000 plus 30 bytes of ISL header, for a total of 18,030 bytes. If only Ethernet packets are encapsulated, the range of ISL frame sizes is from 94 to 1548 bytes.
* What is the trunk setting that allows the port to trunk only if the port receives the proper DTP frames?
switchport mode auto
How to disable split horizon in OSPF?
OSPF has similar functionality as split horizon, by allowing advertising LSA 3,4 only to backbone area.
no capability transit
IP IGP Routing
* What are the five possible metric components for EIGRP and which two are used by default?
Relaibility,MTU,Load,Bandwidth,delay (Bandwidth and delay are used by default)
* OSPF bases cost on what value?
(Bandwidth)
* Which routing protocol uses a destination Multicast address of 224.0.0.9?
(RIP version 2)
BGP
* What issues can the use of a peer group solve in BGP?
Peering involves two networks coming together to exchange traffic with each other freely, and for mutual benefit. This ‘mutual benefit’ is most often the motivation behind peering, which is often described solely by “reduced costs for transit services”. Other less tangible motivations can include:
* Increased redundancy (by reducing dependence on one or more transit providers).
* Increased capacity for extremely large amounts of traffic (distributing traffic across many networks).
* Increased routing control over your traffic.
* Improved performance (attempting to bypass potential bottlenecks with a “direct” path).
* Improved perception of your network (being able to claim a “higher tier”).
* Ease of requesting for emergency aid (from friendly peers).
* What are the default administrative distances for BGP?
EBGP=20
IBGP=200
IP and IOS Features
* What technology allows a router to respond to the name resolution request of a host as if it were the destination host itself?
DNS
IP Multicast
* Which multicast PIM method uses a flood and prune approach?
Dense mode
* Which option for RP assignment is an open standard?
Bootstrap router (BSR)
* What is the purpose of the override keyword when statically setting an RP?
The override keyword specifies that if there is a conflict between the RP configured with ip pim rp-address and one learned by Auto-RP, the RP configured with this command prevails.
QoS
* What happens to traffic in the priority queue of the LLQ method that exceeds the specified rate?
* Which bits of the ToS byte are used for DSCP markings?
6bits
* Between AF21 and AF32, which has the higher drop probability?
AF21 is low drop and AF32 is medium drop.
(Can some one validate these and answer the ones i missed)
Hi Anthony!
At this week I did my CCIE lab( R&S) exam.
when i receive my Score report, i didn’t believe in my eyes. All Section in my Score report were 0%.
With that result i think it only fall in 4 case:
- Case 1 : I did not do any thing(it is noway ).
- Case 2 : I did not save any my configuraton in all devices( it is impossible, i use WR command and i look it work- i didn’t reload any thing in my lab exam).
- Case 3 : I did all things wrong(it is noway, i can sure).
- Case 4 : I did config in devices in one Rack but when Proctor Grad my lab exam, he uses another Rack( and of course every Section in my Score report were zero).
Can you explain for me. With 0% score report i can use ReRead function.
Hi Misa!
YOU HAVE A MAJOR ISSUE HERE – you need to open a case with Cisco!
It should not cost you anything for them to investigate what happened. It had to be an error on their end.
It sounds to me like at the very least, you have a “free” retake coming from Cisco.
thanks for sharing.
But have any one ever hear this situation?
Much appreciated Anthony. Thanks.
I have only one thing to say. I see you emphasizing a lot on certain answer which I do understand. But I heard that Cisco wants from us short answers and many of the candidates that have failed are supporting the idea of short answers.
My question to you how can we approach this answers. Should we emphasize in our answers or be brief to the point?
Because my final report is not clear, then i can not say about how is right or wrong. But in my mind, the opened end questions is not difficult.And the result of opened end question section is not effect to the lab sections.
Cisco wants everyone to know that pursuing RS CCIE should and must know the in and out of the technologies involved, no matter what.
I think if somebody could help me get
“CCIE routing and switching flash cards by Anthony Sequeira and Kevin Wallace”
As i dont find the new edition or version online to buy and even in ciscopress.com it shows “this evaluation is not for sale”
Thanks for your help in advance.
Hi Guys my 2 cents ,I took lab on 16th march Lab attempt was gd but hrd luck due to open ended ques..at CCIE level if sm one ask u abt very very basic stuff e.g pckt header fields I surely go nuts !! As you all already aware in those ques no partial mrkng n its must to hit 3 out of 4 min else 0 so it will become either hit or miss for lab portion ,if u miss wat ever you do in next 7.5 hrs its all waste… passing is 80% n they divided 79(lab)+21(ques) so u hv to clear ques to get ur ccie no..!! I landed safely in lab potion but in open ended I Got 0 hence fail n moreover due the type of ques came like picking tadpole from ocean and asking its name..demotivating me to try for other attempt they shld hv chk ur implementation and design skills rather out of wrld things and they degraded value of lab portion as I need to score only 59 marks there as once I clear opn ended ques part 21 mrks with me so total will 80 n CCIE no with me ..so as a whole LAB purpose is defeating ,feeling pissed off due to this sick rule !!
Can somebody help me get “CCIE routing and switching flash cards by Anthony Sequeira and Kevin Wallace “. Where can i buy it , in ciscopress.com i find this is not available for sale ?
Yeah – Cisco is no longer printing it – used copies are selling for over $100 now – crazy.
I helped develop a better product here if you are interested:
http://www.internetworkexpert.com/ccie-routing-switching-core-knowledge-simulation.htm
This directly addresses practice and study for the Core Knowledge section, it helps with the lab, and finally, it helps with the written.
Thanks Anthony… I would definetly go with this product.
I recently took the R&S lab.
I believe based on % and recalling the point totals that I passed the lab.
However , and we all know what is coming next, I failed the core tech section, so I failed.
What puzzles me is that I thought I answered 3 of the 4 correctly. I even verified that I may have gotten all 4 right.
2 of the questions were very very vague.
Anthony’s docs are very helpful, do not get me wron.
For these 2 they were not. I have started to read the configuration guides ( all of them ) for my next attempt in May.
I haven’t added anything in awhile, but I will give this advice to all when taking the test. Some say elaborate, and some say be brief\concise. I would recommend you take a middle approach. When I answered the questions in one sentence. Then in a second sentence gave an brief description of the technology\scenario. This worked for me. However, if you type in anything extra and you’re wrong it could possibly cost you points. Just keep in mind that the questions are being graded by humans (I think), that understand the topics inside-out.
Totally agree with AHarris. What I did was first explain the scenario / technology and then reply to the question. One more thing, in one of the questions I had to explain a technology, I explained it in 3 different ways, using around 10 lines, when we are suppose to reply in just one or two lines but it is graded by humans, in my case I took the exam in Brussels, it means that a Belgian guy (who normally speaks french) graded an Spanish guy (me) in English… so… try to make the other person understand what you mean, no worries about writing too much. At least it was what I did. I don’t remember replying one single question with less than 4 lines.
Hope this helps
I attempted my first attempt on March and also got 0% on the Open ended question. Personally I think the open ended questions are an advantage if you really lucky and got the questions that you have well prepared for, since there is a large pool of questions. I actually go back to ccie support to clarify why did I failed this section and was told that I only managed to score less than 3 correct questions. They can’t discuss the exam content with me as this is bound by NDA. I agree with some in this forum as there is less transparency in this case. I believe grading an open ended questions is very subjective and NDA is another hurdle
But if you managed to pass this section, then it’s an advantage to you, since you only need to gain another 59 points to pass the lab exam. One of the ccie candidate whom I spoke to agree that the lab portion is easier than the previous before the introduction of open ended questions. Anyway he gained his ccie number after the introduction of this open ended question which is after several attempts :p
Anyway, I personally think if you want be a CiscoCIE expert, you need to be bound by whatever certification requirements released by Cisco. No complain about it :p
FYI, I also bought interworkexpert Core Knowledge product and was quite disappointed because it also did not cover intensively on all the topics
Hi FailedAtFirstAttempt!
Keep at it – next time should be your final time!
We are adding questions almost every day to the Core Knowledge product and being sure to attempt to cover all areas. By the weekend we will hit 450 questions.
Thanks for the feedback.
Hi Antony,
Thanks for the prompt feedback.
I am thinking of giving it another try on this coming june. Have been reading and sharpening my core knowledge and hopefully after the addition of “additional resource link” and “question number” feature in your Core Knowledge.
Hi Aharis,
I confirmed with the CCIE lab manager and was told that the proctors are well trained to grade the open-ended question. Actually I believe there is no need to write the answer in more than 1 sentence as the proctor will read your answer and grade it.
Passing Lab exam first try today, thanks for Antony’s Core Knowledge notes, no RFC, port number stuff asked.
[...] the CCIE questions are going to be, but I’ve found some resources with sample questions, like INE’s CCIE Blog. The plan is to post one question a week with you guys (hopefully) answering in comments. I will [...]