SP Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield SP facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) measures what in a service provider context? → Average time taken to restore a service after failure
2. Which term describes the period of time measured for SLA performance calculations, typically monthly? → Measurement Period
3. Which regulatory requirement mandates that service providers in the US clearly disclose all fees, surcharges, and terms before a customer completes a purchase? → FCC Transparency Rule / Truth in Billing requirements
4. Which KPI measures how often the same incident recurs within a given period? → Recurrence Rate
5. A customer reports that response times exceed SLA thresholds. What is the first action a service provider should take? → Open an incident ticket and begin impact assessment
6. What is 'Infrastructure as a Service' (IaaS) in a cloud service provider context? → Providing virtualized computing, storage, and networking resources on demand
7. What does 'SLA compliance rate' measure? → Percentage of incidents resolved within the contracted response and resolution time
8. What is 'SLA reporting' primarily designed to provide? → Transparent, regular evidence that contracted performance levels are being met or missed
9. Which pricing strategy involves offering a basic service tier for free while charging for premium features or higher usage levels? → Freemium model
10. In a tiered support model, which tier handles the most complex escalations that require specialist expertise? → Tier 3
11. Which protocol automatically assigns IP addresses to devices in a service provider managed network? → DHCP
12. Which metric measures the percentage of customers who discontinue a service within a given period? → Churn rate
13. What is a 'service credit' in the context of an SLA violation? → A financial remedy provided to customers when the provider fails to meet SLA terms
14. Which standard provides a framework for information security management systems (ISMS)? → ISO 27001
15. What does 'network segmentation' accomplish from a security perspective? → Limits lateral movement of attackers by dividing the network into isolated zones
16. What is 'auto-scaling' in a cloud service provider environment? → Dynamically adding or removing compute resources in response to demand changes
17. What does QoS stand for and why is it critical in service provider networks? → Quality of Service — prioritizes traffic to meet performance SLAs
18. Which term describes the process of recognizing revenue only when it has been earned, regardless of when cash is received, as required under ASC 606 / IFRS 15? → Accrual-basis revenue recognition
19. Which billing model charges customers based on the actual amount of resources or services consumed during a billing period? → Usage-based billing
20. Which monitoring protocol do service providers use to collect metrics from network devices like routers and switches? → SNMP
21. Which process is responsible for managing changes to SLA terms when customer requirements evolve? → Contract Review and Amendment Process
22. A provider issues a credit note to a customer. What does this indicate? → The provider is acknowledging an overbilling error and reducing the amount owed
23. What metric tracks the percentage of support tickets resolved without requiring escalation? → First Contact Resolution (FCR)
24. Which concept describes bundling multiple services together and offering them at a combined price lower than the sum of individual prices? → Bundling
25. What does ARPU stand for, and what does it measure? → Average Revenue Per User — mean revenue generated per subscriber in a period
26. In a service provider network, what is the role of a Provider Edge (PE) router? → Connects the provider network to customer sites via CE routers
27. A service provider offers 0–100 GB at $0.05/GB and 101–500 GB at $0.03/GB. A customer uses 200 GB. Which pricing structure does this represent? → Tiered pricing
28. In an MPLS VPN architecture, what is a Route Distinguisher (RD) used for? → Make overlapping customer IP addresses unique in the provider's VRF table
29. Which security framework is commonly required for service providers handling credit card data? → PCI DSS
30. What is the industry-standard file format used to exchange call detail records (CDRs) between network elements and billing systems? → ASN.1-encoded CDR / TAP (Transferred Account Procedure)