What is a Forward Zone in DNS?

• A. A zone where DNS records map domain names to IP addresses.
• B. A zone that contains only reverse mappings of IPs to domain names.
• C. A zone used exclusively for mail exchange records.
• D. A zone that is cached by non-authoritative servers.

Answer: (A)

A forward zone is the part of DNS that stores mappings from host names to IP addresses. When you look up a domain like example.com to find its IP, the forward zone is what provides the address through records such as A (IPv4) and AAAA (IPv6). It may also include other name-to-address related records, but its main role is turning a domain name into an address so applications can connect to the host.

By contrast, reverse lookups use a reverse zone with PTR records to map IP addresses back to names, and caching behavior belongs to resolvers, not to the definition of a forward zone. An MX-focused record deals with mail routing and can appear in forward zones, but that doesn’t define what a forward zone is.