Candidates that are potentially responsible for user-perceptible network problems may be inferred. In an example embodiment, a system includes an inference engine to produce a list of candidates that are potentially responsible for user-perceptible network problems, with the candidates being network components that may include both services and network elements. A response to a service request may be a non response, an incorrect response, an untimely correct response, or a timely correct response. The user-perceptible network problems may include the untimely correct response as well as the non response and the incorrect response. In another example embodiment, a method includes monitoring a network and producing a list of candidates that are potentially responsible for user-perceptible network problems. The candidates of the list may include both services and network elements of the monitored network.