Free CompTIA Network+ N10-009 Practice Question

An authoritative zone is the correct answer because it allows a DNS server to provide official answers to queries about domain names within its configured domain, signifying that it holds the conclusive dataset for that specific zone. A forward zone is just another name for a standard authoritative zone, thus not a contrasting choice. A secondary zone, while holding a copy of the authoritative data, relies on a primary zone for its data, hence it is not the primary source. A reverse zone, on the other hand, is used for resolving IP addresses to host names and doesn't pertain directly to authoritative answers for domain name queries.