Hex conversion

I received a few hex conversion questions on my boson practice exam...

uhh.. should I be quick at this or could this likely be one of those out-of-scope questions for ICND1?

/sigh... one more thing to start practicing in the next 2 weeks I guess!!

Find more posts tagged with

Save $250 on 2025 certification boot camps from Infosec!

Book now with code EOY2025

Button

Comments

scheistermeister

From the old CCNA it was something you should know. I am not sure about the new one.

dynamik

I wouldn't worry about it, but it's pretty easy anyway.

Hex is just 0-9 and A-F (10-15) for a total 16 values.

Each hex digit can therefore be represented by 4 binary bits.

i.e. 6f7c would be 0110 1111 0111 1010 in binary and 6 15 7 12 in decimal.

Just out of curiosity, what was the scenario where you were required to do that? MAC address to binary?

dazerski

dynamik wrote:

I wouldn't worry about it, but it's pretty easy anyway.

Hex is just 0-9 and A-F (10-15) for a total 16 values.

Each hex digit can therefore be represented by 4 binary bits.

i.e. 6f7c would be 0110 1111 0111 1010 in binary and 6 15 7 12 in decimal.

Just out of curiosity, what was the scenario where you were required to do that? MAC address to binary?

Ok cool... yeah it was just a general question on the practice exam.. it didn't place the question in a scenario.

I'd have to go back and look but it said something like,

What is the binary equivalent of BC14?

Something along those lines.

dynamik

Yea, just give each hex value four binary bits and go from there. There's really nothing to it.

tmlerdal

What I did when I took my ccna, was before the exam started, I just wrote out the conversions quick on the dry erase board they gave me. That way I had it handy if I needed it.

tech-airman

ddzierzek wrote:

dynamik wrote:

I wouldn't worry about it, but it's pretty easy anyway.

Hex is just 0-9 and A-F (10-15) for a total 16 values.

Each hex digit can therefore be represented by 4 binary bits.

i.e. 6f7c would be 0110 1111 0111 1010 in binary and 6 15 7 12 in decimal.

Just out of curiosity, what was the scenario where you were required to do that? MAC address to binary?

Ok cool... yeah it was just a general question on the practice exam.. it didn't place the question in a scenario.

I'd have to go back and look but it said something like,

What is the binary equivalent of BC14?

Something along those lines.

ddzierzek,

A little terminology refresher:

1 bit = a binary digit, 1 or 0
1 nibble = 4 bits
1 byte = 2 nibbles = 8 bits

To convert hexadecimal to binary, here's what I would do:

Take the "BC14" and separate them into separate "numbers" like "B C 1 4"
Convert the hexadecimal to decimal by counting up 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15.
Convert the decimal to binary.
Move to the next hexadecimal number and do the same as above.
When you run out of hexadecimal numbers, combine the binary nibbles together into a single binary number.

I hope this helps.

tiersten

tech-airman wrote:

A little terminology refresher:
1 bit = a binary digit, 1 or 0

1 nibble = 4 bits

1 byte = 2 nibbles = 8 bits

This is assuming that you're using a system with 8 bit bytes. A byte isn't actually fixed at 8 bits but for most modern systems it has been standardised at 8. It is usually whatever is the smallest individually addressable location in memory.