102-400 · Question #184
What is the purpose of the dig command?
The correct answer is A. It can be used as a tool for querying DNS servers. See the full explanation below for the reasoning.
Question
Options
- AIt can be used as a tool for querying DNS servers.
- BIt can be used for searching through indexed file content.
- CIt can be used to look for open ports on a system.
- DIt can be used to ping all known hosts on the current subnet
How the community answered
(45 responses)- A76% (34)
- B4% (2)
- C7% (3)
- D13% (6)
Community Discussion
4
Lena V.Feb 9, 2026The correct answer is A. The dig command, which stands for Domain Information Groper, is a DNS lookup utility that sends queries to DNS servers and displays the responses, making it the go-to tool for troubleshooting DNS resolution issues on Linux systems. The exam will test you on this because dig is far more verbose than nslookup, showing you the full server response including flags, TTL values, and which DNS server answered the query. Know that dig is not a port scanner (that is nmap), not a file search tool (that is locate or grep), and not a subnet pinger (that is fping or nmap with ping sweep).
Toby R.Jan 24, 2026dig is definitely A, it is a DNS lookup utility that lets you query name servers directly and see the full response including the answer, authority, and additional sections. On the exam they had me use it to troubleshoot a hostname that was not resolving, and knowing how to read the output made that question straightforward.
Lena V.Jan 26, 2026Toby nailed it, but worth adding that on the exam they also test whether you know the difference between dig querying a specific record type with the type flag versus a plain dig query that defaults to A records, since that distinction shows up in troubleshooting scenarios.
Devraj B.Jan 29, 2026I almost picked C because I was mixing up dig with nmap in my head, but then I remembered that dig stands for Domain Information Groper and it sits squarely in LPI 102-400 objective 109.4, where you use it to query name servers and inspect DNS records the way a technician would troubleshoot a resolution failure.