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Advanced Features and Variants Flashcards

7 cards from real STP practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.

Read the first 7 Advanced Features and Variants flashcards as text

  1. What is the role of the IST Master in MSTP?

    Answer: The switch within an MST region with the lowest bridge ID for instance 0, acting as the root for the IST

    The IST Master is the regional root bridge for MST instance 0, and it serves as the point of connection between the region and the rest of the CIST.

  2. When comparing Rapid PVST+ to MSTP, which statement is accurate?

    Answer: MSTP is more scalable because it groups VLANs into instances, reducing the number of spanning tree calculations

    MSTP reduces CPU and memory overhead by mapping many VLANs to a single instance, whereas Rapid PVST+ runs one STP process per VLAN.

  3. Which STP timer determines how long a switch stores BPDU information before considering the root bridge unreachable?

    Answer: Max Age

    Max Age (default 20 seconds) is the maximum time a switch retains BPDU information; if no BPDU is received within this period, the stored info is discarded.

  4. In a Cisco network, which command verifies the current STP mode and root bridge information for a specific VLAN?

    Answer: show spanning-tree vlan

    'show spanning-tree vlan ' displays the STP mode, root bridge ID, port roles, and port states for the specified VLAN.

  5. What is the purpose of configuring 'spanning-tree vlan priority 0' on a switch?

    Answer: Makes the switch the most preferred root bridge candidate for that VLAN

    A bridge priority of 0 (or any lower value) makes the switch highly preferred as root bridge, as the lowest bridge ID wins the election.

  6. Which feature automatically selects the optimal STP port priority and cost values based on the port speed in modern Cisco implementations?

    Answer: STP Auto-cost based on interface bandwidth detection

    Cisco switches automatically assign STP port costs based on interface bandwidth (e.g., 100 Mbps = cost 19, 1 Gbps = cost 4) per the 802.1D spec.

  7. When two switches are connected by multiple parallel links and STP is running, what happens to the redundant links without additional configuration?

    Answer: STP blocks all but one link to prevent loops, wasting bandwidth

    STP will block all but the single best-cost path between two switches, leaving redundant links idle unless EtherChannel or MSTP load-balancing is configured.