Which command is commonly used to query DNS records for a hostname?

• A. dig
• B. nslookup
• C. ping
• D. traceroute

Answer: (A)

Querying DNS records for a hostname involves asking a DNS server for the information tied to that name. The command commonly used for this is dig. It is designed to perform DNS lookups and can request specific record types (A, AAAA, MX, NS, TXT, etc.). When you run dig example.com, you typically get the A record by default, showing the IP address associated with the hostname. You can specify the record type, like dig example.com MX to fetch mail exchanger records, or dig example.com A to be explicit. The output includes details such as the query type, the answer, and which server responded.

Other commands aren’t as focused on retrieving DNS records. nslookup can query DNS as well, but dig provides more control and richer, more consistent output. ping resolves a hostname to an IP to test reachability but doesn’t reveal DNS records, and traceroute shows the network path to a host rather than DNS data.