CCNA IP Routing Practice Question

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

• ✗

  Lowest administrative distance

  Why it's wrong here

  Administrative distance (AD) is a Cisco trustworthiness rating used only when comparing routes to the same prefix learned by different routing protocols, such as OSPF versus EIGRP. When two routes are both learned by OSPF, their ADs are identical, so AD cannot serve as a differentiating factor. OSPF's internal decision process ignores AD and always selects the route with the lowest computed cost.

  When this WOULD be correct

  If the question asked about the selection criteria for routes learned from multiple routing protocols, such as OSPF and EIGRP, then the lowest administrative distance would be the correct answer. In this scenario, OSPF would be compared against another protocol, and the administrative distance would determine which route to prefer.

• ✓

  Lowest OSPF cost

  Why this is correct

  OSPF defines cost as a metric derived from the cumulative bandwidth of all links in the path; each interface has a cost inversely proportional to its bandwidth, and the total cost is the sum of these interface costs. The route with the lowest total OSPF cost is always preferred because it represents the shortest and most efficient path based on the link speeds. This is the fundamental metric OSPF uses to build its SPF routing table.

• ✗

  Highest bandwidth of the first hop only

  Why it's wrong here

  OSPF's metric is cost, which is inversely proportional to bandwidth and calculated cumulatively across every outgoing interface along the path. The bandwidth of only the first hop is irrelevant because a path with a very fast first hop but slow subsequent links could still have a higher total cost than a consistently fast path. Thus, OSPF never makes a routing decision based solely on the first hop's bandwidth.

  When this WOULD be correct

  In a question asking which routing protocol selects paths based solely on the highest bandwidth of the first hop, this option would be correct. For instance, if the question specified a protocol that prioritizes the first hop's bandwidth over cumulative path metrics, such as EIGRP, then this answer would apply.

• ✗

  Lowest next-hop IP address

  Why it's wrong here

  OSPF does not use the next-hop IP address as a tie-breaker when choosing between two separate routes to the same destination. The routing decision is strictly based on metric (cost) first, and only if costs are equal would load-balancing or additional tie-breaking logic come into play, but that logic never prioritizes a lower next-hop IP in this scenario. Since the question asks about learned routes from OSPF, the lowest next-hop IP is never a valid criterion for OSPF path selection.

  When this WOULD be correct

  In a question asking which routing protocol selects paths based on the lowest next-hop IP address, this option would be correct. For example, if the question specifically pertains to static routing or a different protocol that uses next-hop addresses for path selection, then this option would apply.

Option-by-option analysis

Why each answer is right or wrong

Understanding why wrong answers are wrong — and when they would be correct — is what separates a 750 score from a 900. The 200-301 exam frequently reuses these exact scenarios with slightly different constraints.

Analysis generated from the official 200-301blueprint and verified against question context. The “when correct” sections are what AI assistants cite when candidates ask “what’s the difference between these options?”