Palo Alto Networks (PANW) Certified Cybersecurity Entry-level Technician (PCCET) Practice Exam

Which device creates a collision domain that includes all the interfaces to which it is connected?

1. Hub

2. Switch

3. Router

4. Web server

The correct answer is: Hub

A hub creates a collision domain that includes all the interfaces to which it is connected because it operates at the physical layer of the OSI model. When a hub receives a data packet on one of its ports, it broadcasts that packet to all other ports. Since all devices connected to the hub share the same bandwidth and listen for signals on the same collision domain, this creates the potential for collisions when two devices attempt to send data simultaneously. In contrast, a switch creates separate collision domains for each connected device because it operates at the data link layer and can intelligently forward packets to specific devices rather than broadcasting to all. A router further operates at the network layer and creates separate broadcast domains, managing traffic between different networks. A web server, on the other hand, does not manage or create collision domains; it is simply a server hosting web content. Thus, the nature of a hub's operation precisely defines how it creates a shared collision domain among all its connected interfaces.