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3.0 IP Routing

Routing Fundamentals Practice Questions

Reading the routing table, administrative distance, metrics, and longest prefix match.

CCNA v2.0 objective 3.1 · objective map

Author-reviewed by LabFabric · 6 September 2026 · Report a content issue

One solved question, so you can see how these are marked

A router's table contains 10.1.1.0/24 via OSPF, 10.1.0.0/16 via EIGRP, and 0.0.0.0/0 as a static default. Which entry is used to forward a packet to 10.1.1.55?

10.1.1.0/24, because it is the longest prefix match

Ordinary destination-based forwarding selects the longest matching installed prefix: /24 here. Administrative distance compares route sources for the same prefix during route selection; it does not make an installed /16 beat an installed matching /24.

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All 7 Routing Fundamentals questions in this set

Answers and explanations appear when you work through the set above.

  1. What is the default administrative distance of an external EIGRP route?

    • 90
    • 110
    • 170
    • 200

  2. A Cisco IOS router with default administrative distances learns usable routes to 192.168.5.0/24 from both OSPF and RIP. Which route is installed and why?

    • The RIP route, because its hop count metric is simpler
    • The OSPF route, because its administrative distance of 110 is lower than RIP's 120
    • Both, and the router load balances between them
    • Neither, the conflict causes the router to drop the prefix

  3. In the routing table entry O 192.168.20.0/24 [110/65] via 10.0.0.2, what does the value 65 represent?

    • The administrative distance
    • The metric, which for OSPF is the cumulative cost
    • The number of seconds since the route was learned
    • The outgoing interface number

  4. A packet arrives for a destination that matches no entry in the routing table and no default route exists. What does the router do?

    • Floods the packet out every interface except the one it arrived on
    • Drops the packet and typically returns an ICMP destination unreachable message
    • Buffers the packet until a matching route is learned
    • Forwards the packet to the nearest neighbor router

  5. What is the administrative distance of a directly connected route, and why is it set to that value?

    • 0, because a directly attached network is the most trustworthy information a router has
    • 1, because it is configured in the same way as a static route
    • 90, to match EIGRP so the two can be compared
    • 255, so it is never preferred over a learned route

  6. Which statement best describes the difference between the control plane and the data plane on a router?

    • The control plane forwards user packets while the data plane builds the routing table
    • The control plane builds the routing and forwarding tables while the data plane forwards user packets against them
    • They are two names for the same forwarding process
    • The control plane only exists on multilayer switches

  7. A floating static route is configured as ip route 10.5.0.0 255.255.0.0 192.168.1.2 115 while OSPF also advertises 10.5.0.0/16. What is the effect?

    • The static route is used immediately because static routes always win
    • The static route stays out of the table until the OSPF route disappears, because 115 is higher than OSPF's AD of 110
    • The router alternates between the two routes every 30 seconds
    • The configuration is rejected because static routes cannot take a distance value