A company has three departments in the same building. Each department has its own switch. The company wants to connect the switches so that if one switch fails, the other two departments can still communicate with each other. Which topology should be used to interconnect the switches?

A bus with a single backbone cable connecting the switches

A star with one switch as the central hub

A ring with the three switches connected in a loop

A partial mesh with links between all three switches

A small office with 12 employees wants to connect all their desktop computers to a single shared printer and an internet router. The office has a limited budget and expects to add only a few more devices in the next two years. Which topology and hardware combination is most appropriate?

Mesh topology using access points

A network administrator is designing a network for a small office that has a mix of older devices that only support 10 Mbps and newer devices that support 1 Gbps. The administrator wants to ensure that the older devices do not slow down the newer devices. Which hardware should be used?

A hub that supports multiple speeds

A single switch with all ports set to 10 Mbps

A router with built-in switch ports

A switch that supports auto-negotiation and has separate ports for different speeds

A university campus has multiple buildings, each with its own network. The university wants to connect the buildings in a way that provides redundancy and is cost-effective. They are considering a ring topology. What is a key advantage of a ring topology for this scenario?

It is easier to troubleshoot than a star topology

It provides a redundant path by allowing traffic to flow in either direction around the ring

It requires less cabling than a star topology

It provides the highest fault tolerance of any topology

A company is expanding its network from 50 to 200 users. The current network uses a single switch in a star topology. The IT manager wants to maintain performance and avoid a single point of failure. Which approach is the most effective?

Implement a hierarchical design with multiple access switches connected to two redundant core switches

Connect all users to a single router

Use a bus topology with a single backbone cable

Replace the single switch with a larger switch that has 200 ports

EC-CouncilSOC Essentials

Domain 1Objective 2

Network Topologies and Hardware Components SCE Practice Questions (Page 5)

Part of the Computer Network and Security Fundamentals domain, which makes up ~16% of our current practice bank. EC-Council does not publish an official question count, but from its 120-minute exam (~50–80 total, ~8–13 in this domain), expect 1–2 from this objective — we provide 32 practice questions to prepare you well beyond it. (estimate)

32questions here

7free pages

4concepts

Questions 21–25

21application · medium
A company has three departments in the same building. Each department has its own switch. The company wants to connect the switches so that if one switch fails, the other two departments can still communicate with each other. Which topology should be used to interconnect the switches?
Select an answer first
22application · medium
A small office with 12 employees wants to connect all their desktop computers to a single shared printer and an internet router. The office has a limited budget and expects to add only a few more devices in the next two years. Which topology and hardware combination is most appropriate?
Select an answer first
23expert · medium
A network administrator is designing a network for a small office that has a mix of older devices that only support 10 Mbps and newer devices that support 1 Gbps. The administrator wants to ensure that the older devices do not slow down the newer devices. Which hardware should be used?
Select an answer first
24application · medium
A university campus has multiple buildings, each with its own network. The university wants to connect the buildings in a way that provides redundancy and is cost-effective. They are considering a ring topology. What is a key advantage of a ring topology for this scenario?
Select an answer first
25expert · medium
A company is expanding its network from 50 to 200 users. The current network uses a single switch in a star topology. The IT manager wants to maintain performance and avoid a single point of failure. Which approach is the most effective?
Select an answer first

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