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1.0 Network Infrastructure and Connectivity

Cabling & Media Practice Questions

Updated for CCNA v2.0

Copper and fibre types, distance limits, straight-through versus crossover, and duplex mismatches.

Author-reviewed by LabFabric · 7 September 2026 · Report a content issue

One solved question, so you can see how these are marked

What is the maximum channel length specified for 1000BASE-T over standards-compliant balanced twisted-pair cabling?

100 meters

1000BASE-T supports a 100-metre channel, including the horizontal cable and patch cords. Other copper Ethernet PHYs and cable categories can have different limits, so 100 metres is not a universal rule for every copper technology.

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Find related practice in the CCNA path
All 11 Cabling & Media questions in this set

Answers and explanations appear when you work through the set above.

  1. A campus needs a 10-Gbps, 4 km Ethernet link between two buildings. Which media type is appropriate?

    • Cat6a shielded twisted pair
    • Multimode fibre with 10GBASE-SR optics
    • Single-mode fibre
    • Coaxial cable

  2. Which pair of devices traditionally requires a crossover cable when auto-MDIX is not in use?

    • PC to switch
    • Router to switch
    • Switch to switch (no Auto-MDIX)
    • Router to switch access port

  3. A 100-Mbps copper link has poor throughput. SW1 reports `Full-duplex, 100Mb/s` with increasing FCS errors; SW2 reports `Half-duplex, 100Mb/s` with increasing late collisions. What fault does this evidence identify?

    • A duplex mismatch
    • The cable exceeds 100 metres
    • The VLAN is missing from the trunk
    • Spanning tree has blocked the port

  4. Which advantage does fibre optic cabling have over copper in an industrial environment with large motors nearby?

    • It is cheaper to terminate in the field
    • It is immune to electromagnetic interference (EMI)
    • It supports Power over Ethernet at higher wattages
    • It can be spliced without any special tooling

  5. Which cable standard is required to run 10 Gbps over a full 100 metre copper channel?

    • Cat5 UTP
    • Cat5e UTP
    • Cat6
    • Cat6a

  6. Which connection type is used to perform initial out-of-band configuration on a switch that has no IP address yet?

    • An SSH session to the management VLAN
    • A console connection
    • A Telnet session to the default gateway
    • An HTTPS session to the web interface

  7. A switch uplink uses an SFP optical transceiver but never establishes a link. The far-end transmitter wavelength is outside the local receiver range. What should be checked?

    • The switch management VLAN and password
    • Optic wavelength and fiber compatibility
    • The access VLAN number
    • The DHCP lease duration

  8. A copper Ethernet port shows many CRC/FCS errors while speed and duplex agree at both ends. What is a useful next physical check?

    • Clear the ARP cache
    • Disable STP globally on the switch
    • Inspect or replace the cable
    • Change the VLAN to 1

  9. A 10GBASE-SR optic is selected for a short data-center link. Which fiber category is normally associated with this short-reach optic?

    • Single-mode fiber only
    • Cat6a copper
    • Coaxial cable
    • Multimode fiber

  10. A cable tester reports an open circuit on one conductor of a twisted-pair link. Which fault type does this describe?

    • A break in the conductor path
    • A VLAN mismatch
    • A duplicate IP address on the link
    • A routing loop

  11. Two switches with auto-MDIX support are connected using a straight-through cable and the link comes up. Why can this work?

    • A trunk disables pair polarity checks
    • The ports adapt their TX and RX pair mapping
    • The switches route traffic between the cable pairs
    • The cable is converted into fiber