Objectives in this domain

Compare and contrast TCP and UDP ports, protocols, and their purposes, including common well-known port numbers and their associated services.
Section 2.1medium
Compare and contrast common networking hardware, including routers, switches, access points, firewalls, and the difference between managed and unmanaged devices.
Section 2.2medium
Compare and contrast protocols for wireless networking, including 802.11 standards, frequencies, channels, and Bluetooth, RFID, and NFC.
Section 2.3medium
Explain common network configuration concepts, including IPv4 and IPv6 addressing, DHCP, DNS, VLANs, VPNs, and APIPA, and configure a basic SOHO network.
Section 2.6hard

Sample question from this domain

Free sampleNetworkingmedium

Which statement correctly distinguishes TCP from UDP as transport-layer protocols?

ATCP is connection-oriented and uses a three-way handshake to provide ordered, reliable delivery, whereas UDP is connectionless and sends datagrams without acknowledgement. Correct
BUDP opens a session with a three-way handshake and retransmits any lost segments, while TCP sends datagrams with no acknowledgement.
CBoth TCP and UDP guarantee reliable in-order delivery and differ only in the range of well-known port numbers each is allowed to use.
DTCP is connectionless and therefore faster for streaming, while UDP is connection-oriented and resends any packets that fail to arrive at the receiver.

Recognise that TCP is connection-oriented and reliable while UDP is connectionless and unacknowledged. TCP performs a three-way handshake and uses sequence numbers, acknowledgements, and retransmission to deliver an ordered, reliable byte stream. UDP omits all of that, sending independent datagrams with lower overhead but no delivery guarantee.

Why A is correct: TCP sets up a session and guarantees ordered delivery with acknowledgements and retransmission, while UDP is a lightweight connectionless protocol that trades reliability for speed.

Why B is wrong: This is tempting because both protocols are real transport protocols, but the attributes are reversed: the handshake and retransmission belong to TCP, not UDP.

Why C is wrong: This sounds reasonable because both use the same well-known port space, but only TCP guarantees reliable ordered delivery; UDP makes no such guarantee.

Why D is wrong: The connectionless-versus-connection-oriented labels are swapped here: UDP is the connectionless one, and TCP is the protocol that resends lost packets.

Other domains in this exam

Mobile Devices15% of the exam
Hardware25% of the exam
Virtualization and Cloud Computing11% of the exam
Hardware and Network Troubleshooting29% of the exam

See also the 220-1101 cert hub, the study guide, and the cheat sheet.