Network Engineer

Description

Join our infrastructure team to design, implement, and maintain our network infrastructure. You will configure routers and switches, manage firewalls, troubleshoot network issues, and optimize network performance. The role requires expertise in networking protocols (TCP/IP, BGP, OSPF), network hardware (Cisco, Juniper), VPNs, and network monitoring tools. You will create network diagrams, implement network segmentation, ensure high availability, and support network expansion. Industry certifications (CCNA, CCNP) are highly valued.

Interview Questions (272)

Q1Explain the differences between TCP and UDP protocols.
Technical
Q2How does HTTPS work and what makes it secure?
Technical
Q3Explain how load balancing works and different load balancing strategies.
Technical
Q4How does DNS work and what happens when you type a URL in the browser?
Technical
Q5How does a Content Delivery Network work?
Technical
Q6How does SSL/TLS handshake work?
Technical
Q7What are the different types of load balancers?
Technical
Q8What are the differences between HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, and HTTP/3?
Technical
Q9What is the difference between a reverse proxy and a forward proxy?
Technical
Q10How does a CDN improve performance and how would you configure one?
Technical
Q11How does DNS caching work and what are TTL values?
Technical
Q12What strategies do you use to ensure the continuity of hardware and software operations?
Technical
Q13What is the OSI model and can you describe its layers?
Technical
Q14Describe a time when you had to work as part of a team to complete a project. What was your role?
Behavioral
Q15Can you explain the process of subnetting and its importance in networking?
Technical
Q16What motivates you to pursue a career in network engineering?
Motivational
Q17If a user reports that they cannot connect to the internet, how would you troubleshoot the issue?
Situational
Q18What networking tools or software have you used in your studies or projects?
Experience
Q19How would you explain the difference between TCP and UDP to someone without a technical background?
Technical
Q20What steps would you take to ensure network security in your daily tasks?
Situational
Q21Describe a situation where you had to learn a new technology quickly to complete a project. What was your approach?
Behavioral
Q22What questions do you have about our network infrastructure or the team you would be working with?
Reverse
Q23Can you describe a time when you had to work as part of a team to accomplish a goal?
Behavioral
Q24If a user reports they cannot connect to the Wi-Fi, how would you approach troubleshooting this issue?
Situational
Q25What interests you most about working in network engineering?
Motivational
Q26What steps would you take to secure a network?
Technical
Q27How do you prioritize tasks when working on multiple network issues at the same time?
Behavioral
Q28Can you provide an example of a project where you successfully configured a network device?
Experience
Q29What would you do if you noticed unusual activity in the network logs?
Situational
Q30What do you hope to achieve in your first year as a Network Engineer?
Motivational
Q31Can you describe a time when you had to troubleshoot a difficult technical problem? What steps did you take to resolve it?
Behavioral
Q32What networking protocols are you familiar with, and how do they operate?
Technical
Q33How do you prioritize tasks when working on multiple projects with tight deadlines?
Behavioral
Q34Can you describe your understanding of IP addressing and subnetting?
Technical
Q35Tell us about a project you worked on during your studies that involved networking concepts.
Experience
Q36What steps would you take to ensure network security when configuring a new device?
Technical
Q37Do you have any questions about our team's approach to network management and security?
Reverse
Q38Describe a situation where you had to troubleshoot a network issue. What steps did you take?
Behavioral
Q39How do you prioritize your tasks when multiple issues arise at the same time?
Behavioral
Q40If you encounter a network outage, what would be your first steps to diagnose the issue?
Situational
Q41Have you worked with any network monitoring tools? If so, which ones and what was your experience?
Experience
Q42How do you ensure compliance with network security policies while performing your duties?
Behavioral
Q43If you had the opportunity to learn a new technology related to networking, what would it be and why?
Motivational
Q44Describe how you would implement network segmentation in a cloud environment.
Technical
Q45If we have a security group rule that blocks inbound traffic on port 22 for a security group, but we see traffic from a server in that security group on port 22, why would this happen?
Technical
Q46What skills should a Network Administrator have?
Experience
Q47What is the process for a device automatically obtaining an IP address?
Technical
Q48What does a Firewall do, and how does it typically decide on what traffic to allow or block?
Technical
Q49How do routers decide on where to send traffic?
Technical
Q50Tell me about a time you caused an outage.
Behavioral
Q51What would you do if you get an assignment that requires you to deal with technologies you haven't seen before?
Situational
Q52What happens when you type example.com?
Technical
Q53How would you troubleshoot if someone called and said the Internet is not working on their laptop?
Situational
Q54What is BGP?
Technical
Q55How does DNS work?
Technical
Q56What is the biggest outage you’ve caused, and what did you learn from that?
Behavioral
Q57Explain how you would explore a network/environment with a single IP and a login, assuming you had no network topology or available other engineer to ask questions to.
Situational
Q58What is the difference between a VLAN and a Subnet?
Technical
Q59What is NAT and how does it work?
Technical
Q60What is your troubleshooting methodology?
Technical
Q61How do you prefer to implement new technologies?
Motivational
Q62What do you consider automation brings to a company?
Motivational
Q63Can you explain how a packet gets from A to B?
Technical
Q64What are a couple of ways you can influence a routing choice in BGP?
Technical
Q65What is the subnet mask of /28?
Technical
Q66What is your procedure to implement new stuff?
Technical
Q67What is your experience with cloud technologies?
Experience
Q68What are network devices? Explain their types.
Technical
Q69What are the different types of computer networks?
Technical
Q70What is a network topology? Explain its types.
Technical
Q71Explain the OSI model, its seven layers, the devices used at each layer, and how it differs from the TCP/IP model.
Technical
Q72What happens to a data packet as it moves through the OSI model?
Technical
Q73What is a VPN? Explain its types.
Technical
Q74Explain the TCP three-way handshake and why TCP uses three handshakes instead of two.
Technical
Q75Explain TCP connection termination, the TIME_WAIT state, and what happens if the final ACK is lost.
Technical
Q76What are TCP sequence numbers and acknowledgment numbers? How do they prevent duplicate packets?
Technical
Q77Explain ARP.
Technical
Q78What is the difference between MAC address and IP address?
Technical
Q79Explain TCP retransmission, Retransmission Timeout (RTO), Fast Retransmit, and Fast Recovery.
Technical
Q80What is the difference between the congestion window (cwnd) and the receive window (rwnd)?
Technical
Q81Explain TCP congestion control, including Slow Start, Congestion Avoidance, and AIMD.
Technical
Q82What is Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN)? How does it improve network performance?
Technical
Q83Compare Tahoe, Reno, New Reno, and Cubic TCP.
Technical
Q84How does TCP distinguish between packet loss caused by congestion and wireless transmission errors?
Technical
Q85Compare Stop-and-Wait, Go-Back-N, and Selective Repeat protocols.
Technical
Q86Why must the Selective Repeat window size be at most half the sequence number space?
Technical
Q87What is the Bandwidth-Delay Product (BDP), and How Does Pipelining Improve Network Performance?
Technical
Q88Compare Distance Vector and Link-State Routing Protocols.
Technical
Q89Why Does RIP Suffer from the Count-to-Infinity Problem, and How Do Split Horizon and Route Poisoning Solve It?
Technical
Q90Why Does OSPF Converge Faster Than RIP? Explain the Dijkstra Algorithm Used in OSPF.
Technical
Q91What is route flapping, and how do routing protocols minimize its impact?
Technical
Q92Explain BGP and Why It Is Called a Path-Vector Protocol.
Technical
Q93What are CIDR (Route Aggregation) and Equal-Cost Multi-Path (ECMP), and Why Are They Useful?
Technical
Q94Differentiate Between Interior Gateway Protocols (IGPs) and Exterior Gateway Protocols (EGPs).
Technical
Q95What is route redistribution in computer networks?
Technical
Q96Why Are Private IP Addresses Not Routable on the Internet?
Technical
Q97What is a Default Gateway?
Technical
Q98Explain NAT and its limitations.
Technical
Q99What is DHCP and explain the DORA process?
Technical
Q100What is APIPA and why is it important?
Technical
Q101Why Does IPv6 Eliminate the Need for NAT?
Technical
Q102Explain IPv6 Neighbor Discovery and How It Replaces ARP.
Technical
Q103Compare CIDR and VLSM.
Technical
Q104How Does a Switch Learn MAC Addresses, and What Happens with an Unknown Destination MAC Address?
Technical
Q105Differentiate between store-and-forward switching and cut-through switching.
Technical
Q106What is the difference between a hub, switch, and router?
Technical
Q107How do Layer 3 switches differ from routers, and when would you choose one over the other?
Technical
Q108What is a collision domain and a broadcast domain?
Technical
Q109Explain the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and the Role of the Root Bridge.
Technical
Q110What is VLAN Tagging (IEEE 802.1Q), and Why Is It Used?
Technical
Q111What is PoE (Power over Ethernet)?
Technical
Q112Why Is DNS Hierarchical Instead of Centralized?
Technical
Q113What is DNS cache poisoning and how can it be prevented?
Technical
Q114Explain What Happens When You Enter a URL in a Browser.
Technical
Q115Why Does HTTPS Use TLS Instead of Plain HTTP?
Technical
Q116Compare HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, and HTTP/3.
Technical
Q117Why Does ICMP Not Use TCP?
Technical
Q118Compare Packet Switching and Circuit Switching.
Technical
Q119Differentiate between synchronous and asynchronous transmission.
Technical
Q120What are MTU and Path MTU Discovery (PMTUD)?
Technical
Q121Why is Manchester encoding called self-clocking? Compare it with NRZ.
Technical
Q122What is RTT (Round Trip Time)?
Technical
Q123What is propagation delay and transmission delay? How do they affect network latency?
Technical
Q124Why Is UDP Preferred for Streaming and Online Gaming Despite Being Unreliable?
Technical
Q125Differentiate between Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and ZigBee.
Technical
Q126What are Symmetric and Asymmetric Encryption?
Technical
Q127What is a firewall?
Technical
Q128What are the Advantages of Fiber Optics?
Technical
Q129Can IP Multicast Be Load-Balanced?
Technical
Q130What is a LAN?
Technical
Q131What is a hub?
Technical
Q132What are switches?
Technical
Q133What is data encapsulation?
Technical
Q134Describe network topology.
Technical
Q135What is a VPN?
Technical
Q136What is NAT?
Technical
Q137What is WAN?
Technical
Q138What is the OSI Physical Layer?
Technical
Q139What is a proxy server?
Technical
Q140What is the spine network?
Technical
Q141What is a hub-to-hub connection?
Technical
Q142What is anonymous FTP?
Technical
Q143What is a subnet mask?
Technical
Q144What is the maximum length allowed in a UTP cable?
Technical
Q145How does network topology affect network setup?
Technical
Q146What is RIP?
Technical
Q147What is the importance of carrying out a Fault Tolerance System?
Technical
Q148What does 10Base-T mean?
Technical
Q149How would you handle a network using a router?
Situational
Q150Define the OSI model?
Technical
Q151What is COBIT® (Control Objectives for Information and Other Related Technologies)?
Technical
Q152How are tunnels used in networking?
Technical
Q153Explain the significance of Encryption on a network.
Technical
Q154What is multicast routing?
Technical
Q155What is a private IP address?
Technical
Q156What is the OSI Session Layer?
Technical
Q157What are proxy servers, and how do they protect computer networks?
Technical
Q158What is sneakernet?
Technical
Q159What protocols fall under TCP/IP internet layer?
Technical
Q160What is one fundamental requirement for establishing VLANs?
Technical
Q161What are some important factors to take into account when creating a network disaster recovery plan?
Situational
Q162How do you secure a network against DDoS attacks?
Situational
Q163Explain the difference between network address translation (NAT) and port address translation (PAT).
Technical
Q164How does utilizing a network monitoring system (NMS) benefit you?
Technical
Q165What is the purpose of Border Gateway Protocol (BGP)?
Technical
Q166Explain the concept of Quality of Service (QoS) and how it works.
Technical
Q167What is network segmentation, and why is it important?
Technical
Q168What are some common causes of network congestion?
Technical
Q169What is the difference between IPv4 and IPv6?
Technical
Q170What are some best practices for wireless network security?
Technical
Q171What is subnetting, and why is it important?
Technical
Q172Describe the function of ARP.
Technical
Q173What is a MAC address? How is it different from an IP address?
Technical
Q174What’s the difference between static and dynamic routing?
Technical
Q175How is EIGRP different from other routing protocols?
Technical
Q176How does a switch operate at Layer 2 of the OSI model?
Technical
Q177What’s the function of STP?
Technical
Q178How does link aggregation improve network performance?
Technical
Q179Explain the difference between a stateful and a stateless firewall.
Technical
Q180How does a VPN work? In what cases is it useful?
Technical
Q181What’s the purpose of network segmentation?
Technical
Q182How does intrusion detection and prevention work?
Technical
Q183How do you implement and manage access control lists (ACLs)?
Technical
Q184How do you design a scalable network?
Technical
Q185What is a three-tier network architecture?
Technical
Q186How do you ensure high availability in a network?
Technical
Q187What factors do you consider when designing a data center network?
Technical
Q188How do you incorporate cloud services into a network design?
Technical
Q189Explain the difference between 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi frequencies.
Technical
Q190What is SSID? Why is it important?
Technical
Q191What are wireless network channels? What’s their purpose?
Technical
Q192What is a mesh network? How does it work?
Technical
Q193Explain the purpose of WPA3 in wireless security.
Technical
Q194What network management software do you typically use? What key features are most important to you?
Technical
Q195Explain the role of NetFlow in network monitoring.
Technical
Q196What is a network baseline? Why is it important?
Technical
Q197Describe how to set up alerts for network issues.
Technical
Q198How do you analyze network traffic patterns?
Technical
Q199What scripting languages have you used for network automation?
Technical
Q200How do you use Bash in network administration?
Technical
Q201How do you automate configuration management for network devices?
Technical
Q202Describe a situation where you used a script to solve a network issue.
Experience
Q203How do you integrate scripts with network monitoring tools?
Technical
Q204What is the administrative distance of OSPF?
Technical
Q205What port does BGP use?
Technical
Q206What does DHCP option 150 do?
Technical
Q207How would you design an enterprise network for about 2,000 to 3,000 users with remote sites?
Situational
Q208What do 2,000 to 3,000 users need from the network?
Motivational
Q209How do remote sites connect back to the main network?
Situational
Q210How does wireless connectivity work in your network design?
Situational
Q211How do you ensure redundancy in your network design?
Situational
Q212What security measures do you implement beyond firewalls?
Situational
Q213What questions would you ask to clarify the network design requirements?
Reverse
Q214What tools do you use for troubleshooting?
Technical
Q215What are some basic ways to speed up network performance?
Technical
Q216What things should you consider when you work with several departments and large infrastructures?
Situational
Q217How can you discover network topology?
Technical
Q218How do you find answers to problems you can't solve?
Behavioral
Q219What are the types of LAN cables used?
Technical
Q220A gateway works in which layer of the OSI model?
Technical
Q221How many layers are there in the OSI reference model? Name them.
Technical
Q222What is the difference between forward and reverse lookup?
Technical
Q223What is a backbone network?
Technical
Q224What is a network and how does data move across it?
Technical
Q225Difference between TCP and UDP — when do you use each?
Technical
Q226Walk me through what happens when you type google.com in a browser.
Technical
Q227Explain DHCP — what happens when a new device joins a network?
Technical
Q228Explain the OSI model — and which layers do TCP and IP operate at?
Technical
Q229What's the broadcast address and number of usable hosts for 192.168.1.0/26?
Technical
Q230How do you subnet 10.0.0.0/16 to support 50 subnets each with at least 100 hosts?
Technical
Q231Difference between access port and trunk port?
Technical
Q232What's the role of Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) and how is the root bridge elected?
Technical
Q233What's the difference between RSTP and traditional STP?
Technical
Q234What's the difference between OSPF, EIGRP, and BGP?
Technical
Q235Explain OSPF area types — backbone, regular, stub, totally stubby, NSSA.
Technical
Q236What's an OSPF DR/BDR and why are they elected?
Technical
Q237EIGRP DUAL algorithm — explain Successor and Feasible Successor.
Technical
Q238BGP path attributes — list the 6 well-known mandatory ones.
Technical
Q239Standard vs extended ACL — when do you use each?
Technical
Q240Difference between NAT, PAT, and dynamic NAT?
Technical
Q241Site-to-site IPsec VPN — explain Phase 1 and Phase 2.
Technical
Q242EtherChannel — LACP vs PAgP vs static. Trade-offs?
Technical
Q243What are the differences between 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) and 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5)?
Technical
Q244User reports they can't reach 8.8.8.8 from their PC — walk through troubleshooting.
Situational
Q245show ip ospf neighbor returns 'EXCHANGE' state stuck — what's wrong?
Situational
Q246BGP neighbor stuck in 'Active' state — what does it mean?
Situational
Q247What is Netmiko and how does it differ from Paramiko?
Technical
Q248Show me a basic Ansible playbook to push a config to 10 Cisco switches.
Technical
Q249What is SD-WAN and how does it differ from MPLS?
Technical
Q250Explain Zero Trust Network Architecture (ZTNA) and how it differs from VPN.
Technical
Q251What is BGP EVPN and where is it used?
Technical
Q252Explain AWS VPC peering vs Transit Gateway — when to use each?
Technical
Q253What's the difference between AWS Network Load Balancer (NLB) and Application Load Balancer (ALB)?
Technical
Q254Difference between IPS, IDS, and a firewall?
Technical
Q255What is 802.1X and how does it integrate with NAC?
Technical
Q256Tell me about a time you broke something in production. What happened, and how did you fix it?
Behavioral
Q257Why are you switching from your current job?
Motivational
Q258What is HA1 and HA2 in Palo Alto high availability configuration?
Technical
Q259What constitutes the 6-tuple for session matching in Palo Alto Networks firewalls?
Technical
Q260What is MP-BGP and how does it differ from regular BGP-4?
Technical
Q261What is the difference between OSPF and EIGRP, and when would you choose each in 2026?
Technical
Q262Explain MP-BGP address families and their use cases (VPNv4, EVPN, IPv6, multicast).
Technical
Q263What is VRRP and how does it differ from HSRP and GLBP for first-hop redundancy?
Technical
Q264What is L1, L2, L3 in network engineer support tiers and how do responsibilities differ?
Experience
Q265What questions does Cisco India ask in a network engineer technical interview?
Other
Q266Explain how a Palo Alto Security Policy is evaluated — top-down rule processing.
Technical
Q267What is the 30-60-90 day plan question in an interview, and how should a network engineer answer it?
Other
Q268Walk me through your incident response process for a confirmed malware infection.
Situational
Q269User reports their account is being locked out repeatedly. How do you investigate?
Situational
Q270What's the difference between Windows Security event 4624 vs 4625 vs 4634?
Technical
Q271Explain how you'd detect DNS tunneling using Splunk.
Technical
Q272Why does a SOC analyst need to know networking?
Motivational