Computer Network Interview Questions & Answers

Q1 What is the network?

Interconnected group or association of different entities like a person, computers,
A
radio stations, etc.
Q2 Why is the computer network so important?
The Internet is a network of a network connecting all different network-enabled
A devices which enable data and information sharing between them and that makes
computer networks a core part of our life
Q3 How are Network types classified? Explain them
Network types can be classified and divided based on the area of distribution of the
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network. PAN, LAN, MAN & WAN
Q4 Explain LAN (Local Area Network)
LANs are widely used to connect computers/laptops which enables them to share
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resources
Q5 Tell me something about VPN (Virtual Private Network)
VPN or the Virtual Private Network is a private WAN (Wide Area Network) built on
A the internet. It allows the creation of a secured tunnel (protected network) between
different networks using the internet (public network)
Q6 What is an IPv4 address? What are the different classes of IPv4?
• An IP address is a 32-bit dynamic address of a node in the network. An IPv4
address has 4 octets of 8-bit each with each number with a value up to 255.
A • IPv4 classes are differentiated based on the number of hosts it supports on the
network. There are five types of IPv4 classes and are based on the first octet of IP
addresses which are classified as Class A, B, C, D, or E.
Q7 Define the 7 different layers of the OSI Reference Model
Physical-Bit, Data Link-Frame, Network-Packet, Transport-TCP/UDP, Session-
A establish sessions, Presentation-syntax and semantics, Application- user’s
requirements.
Q8 What are the HTTP and the HTTPS protocol?
HTTP is the HyperText Transfer Protocol which defines the set of rules and standards
on how the information can be transmitted on the World Wide Web (WWW).
A HTTPS is the HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure or Secure HTTP. It is an advanced
and secured version of HTTP. On top of HTTP, SSL/TLS protocol is used to provide
security
Q9 What is the SMTP protocol?
SMTP is the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. SMTP sets the rule for communication
A between servers. This set of rules helps the software to transmit emails over the
internet.
Q10 What is the DNS?
DNS is the Domain Name System. It is considered as the devices/services directory of
the Internet. It is a decentralized and hierarchical naming system for devices/services
A
connected to the Internet. It translates the domain names to their corresponding IPs.
For e.g. interviewbit.com to 172.217.166.36. It uses port 53 by default.
Q11 What is the use of a router and how is it different from a gateway?
A The router is a networking device used for connecting two or more network segments.
 It directs the traffic in the network.
The gateways are also used to route and regulate the network traffic but, they can also
send data between two dissimilar networks while a router can only send data to
similar networks.
Q12 Compare between TCP and UDP
A Reliable, Uses three ways handshake model, Offers error checking mechanism
Q13 What do you mean by the DHCP Protocol?
DHCP is the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. used to auto-configure devices on
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IP networks enabling them to use the TCP and UDP-based protocols
Q14 What is the ARP protocol?
ARP is Address Resolution Protocol. It is a network-level protocol used to convert the
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logical address i.e. IP address to the device's physical address i.e. MAC address
Q15 What is the FTP protocol?
FTP is a File Transfer Protocol. It is an application layer protocol used to transfer files
A and data reliably and efficiently between hosts. It can also be used to download files
from remote servers to your computer. It uses port 27 by default.
Q16 What is the MAC address and how is it related to NIC?
MAC is a 48-bit or 64-bit unique identifier of devices in the network. It is also called
the physical address embedded with Network Interface Card (NIC) used at the Data
A
Link Layer. NIC is a hardware component in the networking device using which a
device can connect to the network.
Q17 What is a subnet?
A subnet is a network inside a network achieved by the process called subnetting
which helps divide a network into subnets. It is used for getting a higher routing
A
efficiency and enhances the security of the network. It reduces the time to extract the
host address from the routing table.
Q18 What is the firewall?
The firewall is a network security system that is used to monitor the incoming and
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outgoing traffic and blocks the same based on the firewall security policies
Q19 What happens when you enter google.com in the web browser?
• Check the browser cache first if the content is fresh and present in cache display
the same.
• If not, the browser checks if the IP of the URL is present in the cache (browser
and OS) if not then request the OS to do a DNS lookup using UDP to get the
corresponding IP address of the URL from the DNS server to establish a new TCP
connection.
• A new TCP connection is set between the browser and the server using three-way
A handshaking.
• An HTTP request is sent to the server using the TCP connection.
• The web servers running on the Servers handle the incoming HTTP request and
send the HTTP response.
• The browser process the HTTP response sent by the server and may close the TCP
connection or reuse the same for future requests.
• If the response data is cacheable then browsers cache the same.
• Browser decodes the response and renders the content.
Q20 What are Unicasting, Anycasting, Multicasting and Broadcasting?
• Unicasting: If the message is sent to a single node from the source then it is
known as unicasting. This is commonly used in networks to establish a new
connection.
• Anycasting: If the message is sent to any of the nodes from the source then it is
known as anycasting. It is mainly used to get the content from any of the servers in
the Content Delivery System.
A
• Multicasting: If the message is sent to a subset of nodes from the source then it is
known as multicasting. Used to send the same data to multiple receivers.
• Broadcasting: If the message is sent to all the nodes in a network from a source
then it is known as broadcasting. DHCP and ARP in the local network use
broadcasting.