What is the primary purpose of DHCP in a network?

• A. To assign static IP addresses to devices.
• B. To dynamically assign IP addresses to devices.
• C. To monitor network traffic for anomalies.
• D. To resolve domain names.

Answer: (B)

DHCP is about dynamically assigning IP addresses to devices on a network. It automates the process of giving each host an IP, usually by leasing addresses from a pool and renewing them as needed. This automatic approach scales well as devices join or leave the network, prevents IP conflicts, and can also provide other essential network settings like subnet mask, default gateway, and DNS servers.

Static IP assignment is done manually or via reservations if you need a fixed address for a device, but that isn’t DHCP’s primary role. DHCP doesn’t monitor traffic or analyze data flows, and it isn’t used for resolving domain names—that’s the job of DNS.