💡 Switching Questions with Answers

1.​ Q: What is the difference between a hub and a switch?​

A: A hub broadcasts data to all ports, while a switch sends data only to the destination
MAC address.​

2.​ Q: Which layer of the OSI model does a switch operate on?​
A: Layer 2 (Data Link Layer), though multilayer switches can operate at Layer 3.​

3.​ Q: What is the default VLAN on Cisco switches?​

A: VLAN 1.​

4.​ Q: What is the purpose of VLANs?​

A: To segment a network into smaller, isolated broadcast domains.​

5.​ Q: What is the range of VLAN IDs?​

A: 1–4094. VLANs 1–1005 are normal range; 1006–4094 are extended.​

6.​ Q: What is VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP)?​

A: A Cisco proprietary protocol used to manage VLANs across switches.​

7.​ Q: What command is used to create a VLAN on a Cisco switch?​

A: vlan <vlan-id> in global configuration mode.​

8.​ Q: What is the function of a trunk port?​

A: It carries multiple VLAN traffic between switches.​

9.​ Q: Which command enables trunking on a Cisco interface?​

A: switchport mode trunk.​

10.​Q: What is the native VLAN?​

A: The VLAN that is untagged on a trunk link (usually VLAN 1 by default).​

11.​Q: What happens if native VLANs mismatch on both ends of a trunk?​

A: It can cause VLAN leakage and security issues.​

12.​Q: How many broadcast domains exist in a 24-port switch with all ports in
different VLANs?​
A: 24 broadcast domains.​

13.​Q: What is MAC address learning in switches?​

A: Switches learn MAC addresses and map them to specific ports to forward frames
 efficiently.​

14.​Q: Explain port security and its importance.​

A: Port security restricts input to an interface based on MAC addresses to prevent
unauthorized access.​

15.​Q: What are the different port security violation modes?​

A: Protect, Restrict, and Shutdown.​

16.​Q: What command is used to set port security on a switchport?​

A:

switchport port-security
switchport port-security maximum 1
switchport port-security violation restrict

17.​Q: What is STP and why is it used?​

A: Spanning Tree Protocol prevents Layer 2 loops in switched networks.​

18.​Q: What are the different STP port states?​

A: Blocking, Listening, Learning, Forwarding, and Disabled.​

19.​Q: What is the default STP mode on Cisco switches?​

A: PVST+ (Per-VLAN Spanning Tree Plus).​

20.​Q: Explain BPDU and its purpose.​

A: Bridge Protocol Data Units are messages exchanged by switches to maintain STP
topology.​

21.​Q: What is the role of a root bridge in STP?​

A: It is the central switch from which all path calculations are made.​

22.​Q: How is the root bridge elected in STP?​

A: The switch with the lowest bridge ID (priority + MAC address) becomes the root.​

23.​Q: What happens during a topology change in STP?​

A: STP recalculates the topology, which may cause temporary traffic disruption.​

24.​Q: What is the purpose of EtherChannel?​

A: To bundle multiple physical links into one logical link for redundancy and increased
bandwidth.​
25.​Q: Name two protocols used for EtherChannel negotiation.​
A: PAgP (Cisco proprietary) and LACP (IEEE 802.3ad standard).​

26.​Q: What is the difference between access and trunk ports?​

A: Access ports carry traffic for a single VLAN, while trunk ports carry traffic for multiple
VLANs.​

27.​Q: How can we prevent Layer 2 loops in a switch network?​

A: By using STP (Spanning Tree Protocol).​

28.​Q: What is the purpose of the "switchport mode access" command?​

A: It forces the interface to be an access port, disabling trunking.​

29.​Q: What does “show mac address-table” command display?​

A: It shows the MAC addresses learned by the switch and their associated interfaces.​

30.​Q: How do switches handle unknown unicast frames?​

A: They flood the frame out all ports except the one it was received on.

31.​Q: What is Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) and how does it improve
convergence time?​
A: RSTP (IEEE 802.1w) is a faster version of STP that provides sub-second
convergence.​

32.​Q: Explain the difference between PVST+ and RPVST+.​

A: PVST+ runs a separate STP instance per VLAN; RPVST+ does the same with faster
convergence using RSTP.​

33.​Q: What are the different STP port roles in RSTP?​

A: Root, Designated, Alternate, and Backup.​

34.​Q: How does MSTP (Multiple Spanning Tree Protocol) improve scalability?​
A: It maps multiple VLANs into a single STP instance, reducing CPU/memory usage.​

35.​Q: What are the steps to configure MST in a switch network?​

A: Define region name, revision number, VLAN-to-instance mapping, and enable MST
mode.​

36.​Q: What is root guard and how does it work?​

A: It prevents a port from becoming root port if BPDUs are received on it unexpectedly.​

37.​Q: What is BPDU guard and why is it used?​

A: It disables a port if any BPDU is received on a port that shouldn’t be participating in
 STP (like access ports).​

38.​Q: How does loop guard help prevent STP failures?​

A: It prevents alternate or root ports from becoming designated when BPDUs stop being
received.​

39.​Q: What is FlexLink and how is it different from STP?​

A: FlexLink is a Cisco feature providing fast Layer 2 redundancy without using STP.​

40.​Q: What is the effect of UDLD (Unidirectional Link Detection)?​

A: It detects one-way links and disables the affected interface to prevent loops.​

41.​Q: Explain VLAN hopping and how to prevent it.​

A: An attack where traffic is injected into VLANs it doesn't belong to. Prevent by
disabling DTP and setting native VLAN to unused.​

42.​Q: How does DHCP snooping work in a Layer 2 network?​

A: It prevents rogue DHCP servers by allowing DHCP responses only from trusted
ports.​

43.​Q: What is DAI (Dynamic ARP Inspection) and where is it used?​

A: It validates ARP packets against DHCP snooping bindings to prevent ARP spoofing.​

44.​Q: How does storm control protect a switch?​

A: It limits the broadcast, multicast, and unknown unicast traffic rate on an interface.​

45.​Q: Explain the use of SPAN and RSPAN in monitoring.​

A: SPAN mirrors traffic to a local port; RSPAN does the same across switches using a
special VLAN.​

46.​Q: What are the limitations of EtherChannel load balancing?​

A: Load balancing is per flow, not perfect; depends on hashing method (e.g.,
source/destination MAC/IP).​

47.​Q: What are the conditions for forming an EtherChannel?​

A: Same speed/duplex, same VLANs, trunking mode, and compatible EtherChannel
protocol.​

48.​Q: What is FEX (Fabric Extender) in Cisco Nexus architecture?​

A: It extends a parent switch fabric and is managed as a single logical switch.​

49.​Q: What is MAC address flapping and how can you troubleshoot it?​
A: It occurs when a MAC address keeps changing its associated port—usually due to
 loops or misconfigurations.​

50.​Q: How do switches handle multicast traffic using IGMP snooping?​

A: By listening to IGMP messages and forwarding multicast traffic only to interested
receivers.​

51.​Q: What is the command to view VLAN information on a switch?​

A: show vlan brief.​

52.​Q: What does the command switchport mode dynamic desirable do?​
A: It initiates trunk negotiation using DTP.​

53.​Q: Can two switches form a trunk if both ports are set to access mode?​
A: No, both ports must support and negotiate trunking.​

54.​Q: What is the maximum number of secure MAC addresses you can configure per
port by default?​
A: One.​

55.​Q: What does the command errdisable recovery cause do?​

A: It configures recovery from err-disabled state for specific causes like BPDU Guard.​

56.​Q: How can you manually recover a port from an err-disabled state?​
A: Shut and then no shut the interface.​

57.​Q: Which command shows STP topology information for all VLANs?​
A: show spanning-tree.​

58.​Q: What causes a port to enter blocking state in STP?​

A: To prevent loops if it receives a superior BPDU.​

59.​Q: What’s the default STP bridge priority?​

A: 32,768.​

60.​Q: How do you manually set a switch as the root bridge?​

A: Use spanning-tree vlan <vlan-id> priority 0.​

61.​Q: How does a switch handle broadcast frames?​

A: Broadcasts them to all ports except the source.​

62.​Q: What is the command to verify if a port is in trunk mode?​

A: show interfaces trunk.​
63.​Q: Can port security be applied on a trunk port?​
A: No, it’s only for access ports.​

64.​Q: What’s the purpose of VTP pruning?​

A: To restrict VLAN broadcast traffic on trunk links to only VLANs in use.​

65.​Q: What’s the default VTP mode of a Cisco switch?​

A: Server mode.​

66.​Q: Which command disables DTP negotiation?​

A: switchport nonegotiate.​

67.​Q: What’s the use of the command switchport trunk allowed vlan?​
A: It specifies which VLANs are permitted on a trunk.​

68.​Q: How does a switch prevent MAC flooding attacks?​

A: By enabling port security with MAC address limits.​

69.​Q: What is an orphan port in MST?​

A: A port that loses connectivity to its MST root bridge.​

70.​Q: What is the result of a VLAN mismatch on trunk ports?​

A: Connectivity issues and possibly VLAN leakage.​

71.​Q: What command shows learned MAC addresses per VLAN?​

A: show mac address-table vlan <vlan-id>.​

72.​Q: What is the role of the Designated Port in STP?​

A: It forwards traffic toward and away from a segment.​

73.​Q: What protocol is used by STP to detect loops?​

A: BPDU (Bridge Protocol Data Unit).​

74.​Q: What’s the effect of using the spanning-tree portfast command?​

A: Port transitions to forwarding state immediately, ideal for end devices.​

75.​Q: Can PortFast be used on trunk ports?​

A: No, only on access ports.​

76.​Q: What’s the difference between PAgP and LACP?​

A: PAgP is Cisco proprietary, LACP is IEEE standard.​
77.​Q: What command shows EtherChannel status?​
A: show etherchannel summary.​

78.​Q: What is the minimum number of links required to form EtherChannel?​

A: Two.​

79.​Q: What could cause an EtherChannel to fail?​

A: Mismatched configurations on member interfaces (speed, duplex, VLAN).​

80.​Q: What is SPAN used for?​

A: Monitoring and analyzing traffic on a switch port.​

81.​Q: What happens if two switches are connected with mismatched trunk settings?​
A: Trunk may not form, or VLAN leakage may occur.​

82.​Q: What is meant by “sticky” MAC addresses in port security?​

A: Dynamically learned MACs are stored in config.​

83.​Q: Which port security mode sends logs but doesn't shut the port?​
A: Restrict.​

84.​Q: What is the command to set a native VLAN?​

A: switchport trunk native vlan <vlan-id>.​

85.​Q: How can you verify if a port is in error-disabled state?​

A: show interfaces status err-disabled.​

86.​Q: What type of traffic is filtered by Dynamic ARP Inspection (DAI)?​

A: Spoofed ARP packets.​

87.​Q: What feature limits the rate of ARP messages per port?​
A: ARP rate limiting.​

88.​Q: What causes MAC address flapping?​

A: The same MAC address is seen on multiple ports, possibly due to loops.​

89.​Q: How does storm control work?​

A: It limits the amount of broadcast, multicast, and unknown unicast traffic.​

90.​Q: What’s the command to configure storm control?​

A: storm-control broadcast level 50.​
91.​Q: What is the purpose of IGMP Snooping?​
A: Controls multicast traffic delivery to only interested hosts.​

92.​Q: How does a switch forward multicast traffic without IGMP snooping?​
A: It floods multicast traffic like broadcast.​

93.​Q: What command shows if IGMP snooping is enabled?​

A: show ip igmp snooping.​

94.​Q: What is a CAM table?​

A: Content Addressable Memory table stores MAC-to-port mappings.​

95.​Q: What happens if a switch’s CAM table is full?​

A: It floods all incoming frames, similar to a hub.​

96.​Q: What is FHRP and how does it relate to switching?​

A: First Hop Redundancy Protocol; ensures default gateway redundancy.​

97.​Q: Can EtherChannel load balance across VLANs?​

A: Yes, depending on hashing algorithm used.​

98.​Q: What hashing methods are available in EtherChannel?​

A: Source IP, Destination IP, Source MAC, Destination MAC, etc.​

99.​Q: What’s a floating static MAC address?​

A: A MAC address learned dynamically on more than one port — usually due to
misconfiguration.​

100.​ Q: How do you clear a MAC address from the MAC table?​
A: clear mac address-table dynamic.​