Choose the cheapest tool for ten stated symptoms and defend every choice

applied · 80 min · Objective 2.3

Task

Build the symptom-to-tool mapping for this domain and defend it on cost rather than on habit, then test it against a symptom deliberately chosen so that the obvious tool is the wrong one.

Steps

  1. Write lab/choose/symptoms.txt with ten distinct network symptoms, one per line, each precise enough to be decidable.
  2. Write lab/choose/mapping.csv with header symptom,tool,eliminates,cost,why_not_the_obvious_one -- the last column is required on every row and may say it is the obvious one.
  3. Order the rows by cost and record in lab/choose/order.md why ordering by cost beats ordering by likelihood, with one worked example from your own table.
  4. Include at least two symptoms where the correct first tool is free: an operating system command, a link light, or asking who else is affected.
  5. Pick the symptom where the obvious tool is wrong, and write lab/choose/trap.md explaining the trap and what the obvious tool would have proved instead.

Verify

grep -c . lab/choose/symptoms.txt
awk -F, 'NR>1 && NF>=5 {n++} END {print n" mapped symptom(s)"}' lab/choose/mapping.csv
awk -F, 'NR>1 && tolower($4)=="free" {n++} END {print n+0" free first-test(s)"}' lab/choose/mapping.csv
awk -F, 'NR>1 {print $2}' lab/choose/mapping.csv | sort -u | wc -l
grep -c . lab/choose/trap.md

Ten symptoms, ten mapped rows with the last column filled on every one, at least two free first tests, at least four distinct tools, and a trap documented. A mapping using one tool for everything has not been thought about.

Notes

Keep this file. Lesson 45's capstone merges this table with the hardware one, and a table built now saves rebuilding it then.

This is an independent study companion for CompTIA A+ Core 1 220-1201 and is not produced by or endorsed by CompTIA.