Network Administrator Interview Questions with Answers

Network administrator interview questions and answers based on various levels of technical interviews in the network admin domain.

1.Q: How do you manage your home network?

A: This answer will prove the employer that you love technology and that all your life it had a great impact on you, helping you to develop great knowledge even since childhood.

Employer look for people to have in their teams that have enthusiasm in their domain, they should have a native attraction for the thing involved in the job.

People who don’t get enough of the things they love at work, try to make those things at home as well to feel complete, these people are the best candidates for the job. So the candidate is using for sure wireless technology at home especially for the family network and any other last hour high tech gadgets. This is a basic an imp network administrator interview questions asked.

2.Q: How is UDP different from TCP?

A: While TCP is a network protocol that is based on connection, UDP is not connection based. Connection means that the transfer of data between two points on a network is made with the acknowledgement of the success of the process.

TCP is used if we want to transfer data and receive confirmation that the data was really sent, no matter in what time period it was made.

For example UDP is used when a movie is streamed and we need continuous frame play without interruptions.

3.Q: What was the strangest situation that you had to deal with regarding managing a network?

A: The candidate will answer to this question mentioning an experience in which he/she had difficulties being understood by the other workers in the company and his/her suggestions were not followed as they were explained, leading to a network fail or other severe problems.

This is best among network administrator interview questions as the answer tell the interviewer about your strengths and challenging nature.

4.Q: How a network maintenance operation is made?

A: The maintenance of a network is made by running tests for the purpose of detecting viruses, breakdowns, hackers or bugs. A network administrator should always stay updated with the latest technology and this can be made only through constant market research.

Staying up-to-date helps the administrator to improve the network and to maintain it in a good state all the time.

5.Q: Can you explain about the biggest error that you have made as a network administrator?

A: This question is a check by the interviewer to see if the candidate is honest so you must admit you have made some errors in the past , everybody makes mistakes, but these are meant to makes us better, we have to learn from them.

If the candidate says he/she never failed it is a big lie, everyone makes something wrong at a point. It is impossible not to make a mistake from the multitude of options and data that are to be found in a network.

Be cautious while answering this type of generic network administrator interview questions as a wrong answer might screw up your interview. Answer wisely and don’t mention even though you did a blunder in previous project.

6.Q: What is the meaning of a database server?

A: When a database server exists, it receives the SQL requests in form of messages and each SQL reaches the entire network. The data is processed by the server itself and doesn’t have to be returned to the client for processing. This makes things more efficient. This is the most simplest network administrator interview questions among all.

7.Q: Which are, in your opinion the best traits of a network administrator?

A: The guys that are involved in network administration in most cases they are natural fixers, they were passionate about computers since they were kids and they know when a problem appears before it makes much damage, they are able to prevent it so it is not necessary to repair it.

Typical Network Administrator Interview Questions:

8.Q: How can you explain the meaning of a Remote Procedure Call or RPC?

A: A Remote Procedure Call makes the complexity of the network hidden. It actually invokes a remote server function and closes itself until the results come back. This process is a synchronous one.

9.Q: What is the meaning of Middleware?

A: For the good communication between servers and clients there is a software called Middleware. Its behavior is just like the one of a bridge. The application from the client calls a service and Middleware manages the transfer through the network and receiving results.

Middleware doesn’t contain any additional software, the other applications are found on the server or on the client. Middleware is a compulsory asked network administrator interview questions in any interview.

10.Q: Do you  difficult for a network administrator to stay so much in front of the computer?

A: When a person decides to become a network administrator he/she must be aware that physical effort will not take part of the job and even if it is , in rare occasions, it is minimal. The work of a network administrator resumes to doing different tasks on the computer and giving phone calls for support. In rare occasions he may act as a system administrator but this is due to urgency.

11.Q: What is an object server doing?

A: With the aid of an object server the application from the client or from the server is a group of communicating objects. The Objects Request Broker or ORB facilitates the communication between client objects and server objects.

12.Q: What is the Routing Information Protocol or RIP?

A: RIP is a is an interior gateway protocol that was often used in interior networks and in some degree in internet networks. It helps the router adapt to the modifications that are made in a network regarding connections. Now it become less used since more efficient protocols were implemented like OSPF or IS-IS. It is limited to a lower number of routers, a maximum of fifteen router.

13.Q: What is the difference between these three: encryption, encoding and hashing?

A: Encryption is used for keeping data intact and safe and is not so easy to reverse because it requires a certain key. Encoding is used to protect data as it passed through the network and after reaching the destination the data returns to the initial state because it is easy reversible process; being easy reversible makes it not so good for data protection. Hashing is a protection method that is not reversible and the data comes under the form of a string named the hash value.

14.Q: How can we explain the following terms: gateway and router?

A: A gateway is like a door that opens for a data package to exit the interior network and step outside the network. The Router handles the transportation of data packages over the interior network.

15.Q: What is the way in which the Asynchronous Transfer Mode works?

A: The Asynchronous Transfer Mode or ATM is a connection technology that works by transmitting data into organized 53 bytes (small) packages through a physical environment with a high efficiency. Packing data into small cells reduces transportation delay so the speeds reached by this technology are very high; it can reach even 10 Gb per second.

16. What types of Transmission media do exist?

A: The signals transported through Transmission media care have two types:

Guided media

Guided media are the conduit types that allow transmission through coaxial cables, fiber optics and twisted-pairs. In this type of transmission the data flow is dependable of the physical limits of the conducting material. The signal is transported over the metallic conductor as an electric current, this is the case for coaxial cables and twisted pairs. In the case of fiber optics lights signals are transmitted through a plastics or glass cable.

Unguided media

This type refers to wireless communication which uses the air to propagate the signal, along with the cellular phone technology, satellite technology and radio technology. The signal takes the form of electromagnetic waves and travels on the air without the need of a solid conductor.

Senior Network administrator interview questions:

17.Q: What is a broadcast storm?

A: We say we have a broadcast storm when the traffic or broadcasting on the network has reached certain limits, meaning that it’s overwhelmed and this can make the network loose the connection. In order for the network to be protected against broadcast storm a firewall must be installed.

18.Q: How can we explain what a Protocol Data Unit is?

A: The Protocol Data Unit or PDU is the data unit from the LLC level and has four fields:

a)the source service access point or SSAP

b)the destination service access point or DSAP

c)the information field

d) the control field

The first two are used for finding the protocol stacks by the LLC on the machines that send or receive data, they are addresses. The control field states when a PDU frame is a supervisory or an information frame.

19.Q: What difference there is between these terms: RARP and ARP?

A: RARP or the reverse address protocol determines a host to find the internet address when only a physical address is known. ARP or the address resolution protocol brings together the IP address which is 32 bit with the physical address which is 48 bit. It is used for finding the physical address when the IP is known.

20.Q: What is the meaning of FTP and TFTP application layer protocols?

A: FTP or File Transfer Protocol is the process file transfer between hosts and it’s provided by the TCP/IP. Two connections are made that are secure over the TCP: one for file copying and one for information control. These connections are also called virtual circuits. TFTP or the Trivial Transfer Protocol  is using UDP to transfer file form a remote host to a local host but without the advantages of security and reliability.

21.Q: Can you give me a list of priorities concerning network support?

A: Usually a network administrator doesn’t receive a single call when a problem arises. The problems in most cases affect multiple employees so we must learn how to make a list of priorities. The major problems that we must take into consideration are the following:

a)Minor problem- these come from a single user and happen quite often, the user can continue working but with some lacks.

b)Partial failure of a workstation- in this case a single user is affected and almost all the tasks are compromised

c)Small failure of a network- this affects a group of users, not just an individual

d)Partial failure of a network- this has an impact on multiple user groups

e)Total failure of a workstation- in this case an individual can’t work at all

f)Total failure of a network- when everybody gets the problem and nothing works.

22.Q: Which are the tools you carry usually for troubleshooting?

A: A generic question from the interviewer that wants to verify if the flow of the answer remains the same no matter what question is asked, so the details of the answer are not the ones that really count here. The “gear “ of a network admin must include CD-ROM’s, technical support links, networks analyzers, server log files, telephone numbers, README files and so on. Subscriptions to certain support companies are important to be declared.

23.Q: What meaning has  ICMP?

A: The Internet Control Message Protocol or ICMP is belonging to the TCP/IP set and has the role of testing the notifications transmissions of hosts and gateways and manages the messages of error and control.

24.Q: How do you resolve a problem with a printer when a user says that it just prints trash?

A: Even if you don’t really know the answer for this problem from your head without having a real life situation to verify for real this question is meant to discover to the interviewer you reactions to possible uncertain problems and what you may thing is the solution to the issue.

25.Q: Which are the known network topologies?

A: The following topologies apply to networks:

a)the ring topology: a loop connection is made between computers and it has the advantages that the signal is generated from every computer, so we have a strong signal,  a simple install process and equal access to media.

b)the star topology: the connection is made with a central hub and the advantages are the low cost and easiness in installation and problem solving.

c)the bus topology: every computer connects to the main network cable and has the advantages of easiness in installation, understanding, extension and low cost. This is one of most asked network administrator interview questions. Prepare well for this.