AD DCs, FSMO & GC Practice Tests: 120 Questions Explained

Do you look after Active Directory domain controllers - or are you about to add your first one? These practice tests check what an administrator needs to know about DCs: what they store and replicate, how clients find them through DNS, what the global catalog and the five operations master roles do, how to transfer or seize a role, and how to deploy new DCs with the wizard, PowerShell, install from media and cloning.

You get 3 practice tests with 120 questions in total (40, 40, 40). Every question was checked twice before release: once by the author against the official documentation, and once by an independent reviewer who answered it blind - any disagreement was settled with a source.

What makes the explanations useful

Each answer tells you why the right option is right and why each wrong option is wrong. The wrong options are real features, commands and settings that are easy to pick by mistake - that is where most of the learning is.

How the tests are built

• Practice Test 1: Domain Controllers, Global Catalog and Operations Masters: the AD DS database and SYSVOL, writable DCs and RODCs, the global catalog, DC locator and SRV records, Kerberos sign-in, the five FSMO roles, transferring and seizing roles.
• Practice Test 2: Promoting, Cloning and Deploying Domain Controllers: installing AD DS, the configuration wizard and DSRM, PowerShell promotion, Server Core, install from media, RODC deployment, cloning and virtualizing DCs.
• Practice Test 3: Full Mock Exam: a mixed exam across all areas - take it last, in one sitting.

Questions use single-answer and multiple-answer formats; the number of answers to pick is always stated. Suggested time: 60 minutes per test.

Versions: Windows Server 2022 and Windows Server 2025 (Active Directory Domain Services, DNS, Hyper-V), PowerShell 5.1 ActiveDirectory and ADDSDeployment modules, ntdsutil, as of October 2026.

Please note: these are original practice questions written by an instructor. This course is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft; Windows Server and Active Directory are Microsoft trademarks.