Network engineer interview questions

1.
User(s) are complaining of delays when using the network. What would you do?
2.
What are some of the problems associated with operating a switched LAN?
3.

Name some of the ways of combining TCP/IP traffic and SNA traffic over the
same link.
4.

What sort of cabling is suitable for Fast Ethernet protocols?

5.
What is a Class D IP address?
6.
Why do I sometimes lose a server’s address when using more than one server?
7.
What is Firewall?
8.
How do I monitor the activity of sockets?
9.
How would I put my socket in non-blocking mode?
10.
What are RAW sockets?
11.
What is the role of TCP protocol and IP protocol.
12.
What is UDP?
13.
How can I make my server a daemon?
14.
How should I choose a port number for my server?
15.
Layers in TCP/IP
16.
How can I be sure that a UDP message is received?
17.
How to get IP header of a UDP message
18.
Writing UDP/SOCK_DGRAM applications
19.
How many bytes in an IPX network address?
20.
What is the difference between MUTEX and Semaphore?
21.
What is priority inversion?
22.
Different Solutions to dining philosophers problem.
23.
What is a message queue?
24.
Questions on Shared Memory.
25.
What is DHCP?
26.
Working of ping, telnet, gopher.
27.
Can I connect two computers to internet using same line ?
Network administrator interview questions
1.
What is the difference between layer 2 and layer 3 in the OSI model?
2.
What is the difference between a hub, switch, and router?
3.
What is a VLAN?
4.
What is the difference between TCP and UDP?
5.
How do you distinguish a DNS problem from a network problem?
6.
What is a runt, Giant, and collision?
7.
What is a broadcast storm?
8.
What is the purpose of VRRP?
9.
What is a VPN?
10.
What information about a peer would I need to establish a VPN?
11.
What is a full-class C in CIDR notation?
12.
What is a default route?
13.
What is a metric?
14.
What is a MAC address?
15.
What is ARP/RARP?
16.
Describe a TCP connection sequence
17.
What is MTU?
18.
What other TCP setting can you modify besides MTU to shorten packets?
Network engineer interview questions
OSPF

* Describe OSPF in your own words.

* OSPF areas, the purpose of having each of them
* Types of OSPF LSA, the purpose of each LSA type
* What exact LSA type you can see in different areas

* How OSPF establishes neighboor relation, what the stages are

* If OSPF router is stucked in each stage what the problem is and how to troubleshoot
it
* OSPF hierarchy in the single or multi areas. Cool OSPF behavior in broadcast and
nonbroadcast
* Draw the diagram of typical OSPF network and explain generally how it works, DR,
BDR, election, ASBR, ABR, route redistribution and summarization
STP
* How it works and the purpose
* Diff types (SSTP, MSTP, RSTP) Cisco - PVST/PVST+

* root election
* Diff. port stages and timing for convergence
* Draw the typical diagram and explain how diff types of STP work
* What ports are blocking or forwarding
* How it works if there are topology changes

ACLs

* What are they

* Diff types
* Write an example if you want to allow and to deny…
* Well-known port numbers (DNS - 53 and etc…)

QOS

* What is that
* What is the diff b/w L2 and L3 QoS
* How it works

Network:

* Draw the typical network diagram you have to deal with

* explain how it works
* What part of it you are responsible
* firewall, what is that, how it works, how it is diff from ACLs
* What problems with the network you had had and how you solved it.
* What are the ways to troubleshoot the network, techniques, commands
* network security, ways to achieve it

Switching:

* VLANs
* STP
* How a L2 switch works with broadcast, unicast, multicast, known/unknown traffic
* VRRP, GLBP
* port monitoring and mirroring
* L3 switch, how it works
* PIM sparse and dense modes

Interview questions for network engineer

1. Describe the OSI model.
2. What is the difference between a repeater, bridge, router? Relate this to the OSI
model.
 3. Describe an Ethernet switch and where it fits into the OSI model.
4. What is a VLAN? What is an ELAN? What is the difference?
5. Relate FDDI/ATM/SONET to the OSI model.
6. Explain how to configure a host network interface (e.g. IP address, netmask,

broadcast address)?
7. Describe Ethernet packet contents: min/max size, header.
8. Describe TCP/IP and its protocols.
9. Describe ATM and what are its current advantages and disadvantages.
10. Describe SONET.
11. What are the maximum distances for CAT5 cabling?
12. Describe UDP and TCP and the differences between the two.
13. What is your current IP address? Hoiw do you find that out on different OSs?
14. Describe what a broadcast storm is.
15. Describe what a runt, a giant, and a late collision are and what causes each of
them.
16. How do you distinguish a DNS problem from a network problem?
17. Describe the Bandwidth Delay problem.
18. Describe the principle of multi-layer switching.
19. Describe the purpose and basic functionality of things like HSRP, VRRP etc.

.
Networking
•
What is a NIC?
•
What is a MAC Address?
•
When would you use a crosslink cable?
•
What are the main advantages and disadvantages of Fiber-Optic-based networks?
•
What is the difference between a Hub and a Switch?
•
On which OSI layer can a router be found?
•
What is CSMA/CD?
•
What is multicast?
•
What is Broadcast?
•
What is the difference between TCP and UDP?
•
Describe some of the settings that are added by TCP and by UDP to the packet's header.
•
What are TCP Ports? Name a few.
•
What is a TCP Session?
•
What three elements make up a socket?
•
What will happen if you leave the default gateway information empty while manuallyconfiguring TCP/IP?
•
What will happen if you execute the following command: "arp –d *"?
•
What is ICMP?
•
When would you use the ping command with the "-t" switch?
•
What command-line tool would help you discover for which port numbers your computer is listening?
•
What is APIPA? How would you recognize it?

•
What is a Cyclic Redundancy Check?
•
What would you type in at a command prompt to view the IP settings for the computer that you are sitting
at?
•
What command would you type in at a command prompt to view the IP address of theremote computer?
•
What is the W Value for class B?
•
What is the Net ID of an IP Address of 18.9.25.3 with Subnet Mask of 255.0.0.0?
•
What is CIDR?
•
What is 255.255.255.255 used for?
•
What is the maximum number of hosts for a Class B Network?
•
What is the (default) class type of 195.152.12.1?
•
What is the subnet mask for 10.0.10.1/17?
•
What is the result when changing from a subnet mask of 255.255.224.0 to a subnet mask of 255.255.240.0?
•
How can you access a shared folder from a remote computer? Name at least 3 methods