Networking technical interview questions and answers are essential for anyone preparing for IT support, system administration, or network engineering roles. In most companies, networking is the backbone of communication, security, and server operations, which is why recruiters evaluate candidates on core concepts like OSI Model, TCP/IP, protocols, IP addressing, routing, switching, and troubleshooting. Whether you are a fresher or an experienced candidate, mastering networking topics helps you perform confidently during technical rounds. These questions are commonly asked in companies like TCS, Wipro, Infosys, Accenture, Cognizant, and Capgemini during campus placements and lateral hiring. In this guide, you will learn frequently asked networking interview questions with answers, simple explanations, and practical examples. You can also download PDFs and practice mock interview sets to strengthen your preparation for both technical interviews and placement tests.
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21. What is Bandwidth?
Every line has an upper limit and a lower limit on the frequency of signals it can carry. This limited range is called the bandwidth.
22. What are the types of Transmission media?
Signals are usually transmitted over some transmission media that are broadly
classified in to two categories.
a) Guided Media:
These are those that provide a conduit from one device to another that include twisted-pair, coaxial cable and fiber-optic cable. A signal traveling along any of these media is directed and is contained by the physical limits of the medium. Twistedpair and coaxial cable use metallic that accept and transport signals in the form of electrical current. Optical fiber is
23. What is Project 802?
It is a project started by IEEE to set standards to enable intercommunication between equipment from a variety of manufacturers. It is a way for specifying functions of the physical layer, the data link layer and to some extent the network layer to allow for interconnectivity of major LAN
protocols.
It consists of the following:
802.1 is an internetworking standard for compatibility of different LANs and MANs across protocols.
802.2 Logical link control (LLC) is the upper sublayer of the d
24. What is a repeter ?
Also called a regenerator, it is an electronic device that operates only at physical layer. It receives the signal in the network before it becomes weak, regenerates the original bit pattern and puts the refreshed copy back in to the link.
25. what is a bridge ?
These operate both in the physical and data link layers of LANs of same
type. They divide a larger network in to smaller segments. They contain logic that allow
them to keep the traffic for each segment separate and thus are repeaters that relay a
frame only the side of the segment containing the intended recipent and control
congestion.
26. what are Routers ?
They relay packets among multiple interconnected networks (i.e. LANs of different type). They operate in the physical, data link and network layers. They contain software that enable them to determine which of the several possible paths is the best for a particular transmission.
27. what are Gateways ?
They relay packets among networks that have different protocols (e.g. between a LAN and a WAN). They accept a packet formatted for one protocol and convert it to a packet formatted for another protocol before forwarding it. They operate in all seven layers of the OSI model.
28. What is ICMP?
ICMP is Internet Control Message Protocol, a network layer protocol of the TCP/IP suite used by hosts and gateways to send notification of datagram problems back to the sender. It uses the echo test / reply to test whether a destination is reachable and responding. It also handles both control and error messages.
29. What are the data units at different layers of the TCP / IP protocol suite?
The data unit created at the application layer is called a message, at the transport layer the data unit created is called either a segment or an user datagram, at the network layer the data unit created is called the datagram, at the data link layer the datagram is encapsulated in to a frame and finally transmitted as signals along the transmission media.
30. What is difference between ARP and RARP?
The address resolution protocol (ARP) is used to associate the 32 bit IP address with the 48 bit physical address, used by a host or a router to find the physical address of another host on its network by sending a ARP query packet that includes the IP address of the receiver. The reverse address resolution protocol (RARP) allows a host to discover its Internet address when it knows only its physical address.