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Top 100 Networking Interview Questions & Answers (2026)

100 Questions 40 Beginner 35 Intermediate 25 Advanced

About Networking

Computer networking is the foundation of every internet-connected system. Whether you are a backend developer, DevOps engineer, security professional, or system administrator, solid networking knowledge is essential. Companies building infrastructure, cloud services, and distributed systems prioritize networking expertise in their hiring.

What to Expect in a Networking Interview

Networking interviews cover the OSI model, TCP/IP stack, DNS resolution, HTTP/HTTPS and TLS, subnetting and CIDR, routing protocols (BGP, OSPF), load balancing, firewalls, and network security. DevOps and cloud roles additionally test VPC configuration, CDN concepts, and container networking (overlay networks, CNI plugins).

How to Use This Guide

Start with OSI model and TCP/IP questions — they are the foundation for everything else. Many developers skip networking fundamentals and regret it in interviews. Mastering this section gives you a significant edge over peers who only know application-layer knowledge.

Curated by Tech Baithak Editorial Team · Last updated: May 2026

Beginner 40 questions

Core concepts every Networking developer must know.

01 What is a Computer Network? 02 What is the OSI model? 03 What is the TCP/IP model? 04 What is the difference between TCP and UDP? 05 What is an IP address? 06 What is a subnet mask? 07 What is CIDR notation? 08 What is the difference between a Hub, Switch, and Router? 09 What is a MAC address? 10 What is DNS? 11 What is DHCP? 12 What is NAT (Network Address Translation)? 13 What is a firewall? 14 What is the difference between HTTP and HTTPS? 15 What is a VPN? 16 What is the difference between a private and public IP address? 17 What is bandwidth and latency? 18 What is the 3-way handshake in TCP? 19 What are well-known port numbers? 20 What is ARP (Address Resolution Protocol)? 21 What is ICMP and how is it used in ping? 22 What is a default gateway? 23 What is the loopback address? 24 What is a broadcast address? 25 What is a network protocol? 26 What is FTP? 27 What is SSH? 28 What is SMTP, POP3, and IMAP? 29 What is a VLAN? 30 What is the difference between IPv4 and IPv6? 31 What is a network topology? 32 What is a network packet? 33 What is TTL (Time to Live)? 34 What is the difference between a Layer 2 and Layer 3 switch? 35 What is Wi-Fi and how does it work? 36 What is a proxy server? 37 What is a CDN (Content Delivery Network)? 38 What is a network topology diagram? 39 What is network troubleshooting and common tools? 40 What is the difference between half-duplex and full-duplex?

Intermediate 35 questions

Practical knowledge for developers with hands-on experience.

01 What is subnetting and how do you calculate subnets? 02 What is OSPF? 03 What is BGP? 04 What is STP (Spanning Tree Protocol)? 05 What is QoS (Quality of Service)? 06 What is the difference between unicast, multicast, and broadcast? 07 What is NAT overload (PAT) and how does it work? 08 What is MPLS? 09 What is IPsec? 10 What is SNMP? 11 What is network segmentation? 12 What is a load balancer? 13 What is DNS load balancing and DNS failover? 14 What is a DMZ in networking? 15 What is network monitoring and what tools are used? 16 What is network address planning and IP management (IPAM)? 17 What are ACLs (Access Control Lists)? 18 What is network redundancy and high availability? 19 What is HSRP and VRRP? 20 What is Port Security on a switch? 21 What is 802.1X network authentication? 22 What is network tunneling? 23 What is network flow analysis (NetFlow)? 24 What are common network attacks? 25 What is EIGRP? 26 What is RIP (Routing Information Protocol)? 27 What is Link Aggregation (LAG/LACP)? 28 What is WLAN security (WPA2 vs WPA3)? 29 What is DNS over HTTPS (DoH) and DNS over TLS (DoT)? 30 What is syslog in networking? 31 What is DHCP snooping? 32 What is Dynamic ARP Inspection (DAI)? 33 What is the difference between convergence time in routing protocols? 34 What is cloud networking and VPC? 35 What is network performance metrics?

Advanced 25 questions

Deep expertise questions for senior and lead roles.

01 What is SD-WAN? 02 What is zero trust networking? 03 What is SDN (Software-Defined Networking)? 04 What is VXLAN and its role in data center networking? 05 What is BGP communities and route filtering? 06 What is network function virtualization (NFV)? 07 What is OSPF area design and types? 08 What is DNSSEC? 09 What is Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) security? 10 What is network observability vs monitoring? 11 What is a network time protocol (NTP)? 12 What is anycast routing? 13 What is network automation and infrastructure as code? 14 What is the difference between SONET/SDH and DWDM? 15 What is TCP congestion control? 16 What are BGP route reflectors? 17 What is OSPF LSA types? 18 What is EVPN (Ethernet VPN)? 19 What is network design principles (hierarchical model)? 20 What is Segment Routing? 21 What is TCP window scaling and large receive offload? 22 What is network automation with Python and Ansible? 23 What is wireless mesh networking? 24 What is network visibility and packet broker? 25 What is GRE tunneling and when is it used?

Back to All Topics 100 questions total