InternshipAll 60 tasks, level by level
The real graded Network Engineering tasks the portal assigns, grouped into three levels.
The portal assigns these Network Engineering tasks. Finish Level 1 before Level 2 and Level 2 before Level 3. Your mentor may mark some tasks as required for the certificate.
Level 1: Foundations (24 tasks)
| Task | What to do |
|---|---|
OSI and TCP/IP models | Draw both models and map 10 real protocols (HTTP, DNS, TCP, IP, Ethernet, Wi-Fi and others) to their layers. |
| IP addressing | Explain public vs private IPv4, CIDR notation and IPv6 basics with examples from your own network. |
| Subnetting practice | Split 192.168.10.0/24 into 6 subnets, list each network, broadcast and host range, and show your working. |
| Inspect your network | Use ipconfig/ip, ping, traceroute and nslookup at home or college and explain each result. |
| DNS in depth | Trace a DNS lookup for a domain with dig +trace and explain root, TLD and authoritative servers. |
| DHCP and ARP | Capture a DHCP exchange and ARP requests in Wireshark and explain each packet. |
| TCP vs UDP | Capture a TCP three-way handshake and a UDP DNS query in Wireshark and compare them. |
| Network devices | Explain what a hub, switch, router, access point and firewall do, with a home and an office example. |
| Cable and Wi-Fi basics | Compare Cat5e, Cat6 and fibre, and 2.4 GHz vs 5 GHz Wi-Fi, with speed and range. |
| Packet Tracer first lab | In Cisco Packet Tracer, connect two PCs through a switch, assign IPs and ping between them. Save the .pkt file. |
| Router basics | Connect two networks with a router in Packet Tracer and configure interfaces so they can talk. |
| Ports and services | List 20 well-known ports and their services, then find which ports are open on your own machine. |
| Home network audit | List every device on your home or hostel network, its IP and MAC, and secure the router settings. |
| Binary and hex practice | Convert 20 IP addresses and masks between decimal, binary and hex without a calculator. |
| IPv6 addressing | Explain global, link-local and unique local IPv6 addresses and configure IPv6 in Packet Tracer. |
| Ethernet frames | Capture Ethernet frames in Wireshark and label the MAC addresses, type field and payload. |
| Switch MAC table | Show how a switch learns MAC addresses by watching its table fill in Packet Tracer. |
| Cable types | Explain straight-through vs crossover and when auto-MDIX removes the difference. |
| Basic device security | Set enable secret, console and VTY passwords and SSH on a router. |
| Interface status | Use show commands to read interface status, errors and speed/duplex. |
| HTTP vs HTTPS capture | Capture HTTP and HTTPS traffic and show what can and cannot be read. |
| Email protocols | Explain SMTP, IMAP and POP3 and which ports they use. |
| Network diagram symbols | Draw a network using standard icons and a legend. |
| Speed tests | Measure bandwidth, latency and jitter at different times and explain the results. |
Level 2: Building real features (20 tasks)
| Task | What to do |
|---|---|
| VLANs | Create two VLANs on a switch in Packet Tracer and show that hosts in different VLANs cannot talk until you add routing. |
| Inter-VLAN routing | Configure router-on-a-stick so the two VLANs can communicate, and document every command. |
| Static routing | Build a three-router network and configure static routes until every network can reach every other. |
| OSPF dynamic routing | Replace the static routes with OSPF and show the routing table and neighbours. |
| NAT and PAT | Configure PAT so a private LAN reaches an outside network, and explain the translation table. |
| Access control lists | Write ACLs that allow web traffic but block ping from one subnet, and test both. |
| DHCP server | Configure a router as a DHCP server with an excluded range and verify clients get addresses. |
| Wireless network setup | Set up a secured wireless network in Packet Tracer with WPA2/WPA3 and a separate guest network. |
| Troubleshooting lab | Break your lab in three ways (wrong mask, missing route, shut interface), then diagnose and fix each with commands. |
| Network documentation | Draw a clean topology diagram of your lab with IP plan, VLAN table and device list. |
| EtherChannel | Bundle two links between switches with LACP and show load sharing. |
| Port security | Limit a switch port to one MAC address and show what happens when a second device connects. |
| DHCP snooping concept | Explain rogue DHCP servers and how DHCP snooping stops them. |
| OSPF multi-area | Configure OSPF with two areas and explain area border routers. |
| Route summarisation | Summarise four subnets into one route and verify it. |
| IPv6 routing | Configure IPv6 static routes or OSPFv3 between three routers. |
| Syslog and NTP | Send device logs to a syslog server and sync time with NTP. |
| Wireless survey | Use a Wi-Fi analyser app to map signal strength and channels in a building and suggest improvements. |
| Firewall rules | Configure a firewall (pfSense or a cloud security group) to allow only required services. |
| Troubleshooting methodology | Write a step-by-step troubleshooting method (bottom-up or divide and conquer) and apply it to a lab fault. |
Level 3: Professional work and capstone (16 tasks)
| Task | What to do |
|---|---|
| Redundancy with STP | Build a looped switch network, show how Spanning Tree blocks a port, and explain what happens when a link fails. |
| First hop redundancy | Configure HSRP or VRRP between two routers and show failover when one goes down. |
| Site-to-site VPN concept | Explain IPsec site-to-site VPN and configure a simple one in Packet Tracer or GNS3. |
| Network monitoring | Set up SNMP or a tool like Zabbix/LibreNMS in a lab and graph traffic on one interface. |
| Network automation with Python | Use Python with Netmiko (or a lab simulator) to back up the configuration of a device automatically. |
| Cloud networking | Design a cloud VPC with public and private subnets, route tables and a NAT gateway, and draw it. |
| Network security review | Review your lab for weak passwords, open management access and missing ACLs, and harden it. |
| Capstone: campus network | Design and build a small campus network (3 departments, VLANs, routing, DHCP, ACLs, Wi-Fi, redundancy) with full documentation. |
| BGP basics lab | Configure eBGP between two autonomous systems in GNS3 or a simulator and advertise networks. |
| SD-WAN concept | Explain SD-WAN and compare it with traditional MPLS for a company with five branches. |
| Zero trust network access | Explain ZTNA and how it differs from a traditional VPN. |
| Ansible for networks | Use Ansible to push a configuration change to two lab devices. |
| Network capacity planning | Estimate bandwidth needs for a college of 2,000 students and design the uplinks. |
| Packet analysis case | Analyse a provided capture file to find the cause of a slow network and write a report. |
| Data centre network design | Explain spine-leaf architecture and draw a small design. |
| Capstone 2: branch office network | Design and build a branch office connected to HQ by VPN, with VLANs, routing, firewall rules, Wi-Fi, monitoring and documentation. |