Google Cloud Certified Associate Cloud Engineer Practice 2025 - Free Cloud Engineer Practice Questions and Study Guide

CIDR notation, or Classless Inter-Domain Routing notation, is the correct format for specifying IP address ranges. It succinctly represents a range of IP addresses by combining an IP address with a suffix that indicates the number of bits that are used for the network portion of the address. For example, in CIDR notation, the IP address 192.168.1.0/24 signifies a network with an address of 192.168.1.0 and a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0, which allows for 256 possible addresses within that range.

Using CIDR notation is beneficial because it provides a more flexible subnetting approach than the traditional class-based system, allowing network administrators to allocate addresses more efficiently according to actual needs rather than predetermined classes. This helps in the conservation of IP addresses and optimizes routing.

The other choices do not correctly describe the method used for specifying IP address ranges. BSA format does not apply in this context, ASCII format refers to character encoding, and IP range syntax is vague and not a recognized standard in IP addressing.