This 350-501 practice question tests your understanding of networking. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A network engineer is troubleshooting a BGP convergence issue in a large service provider network. After a link failure in the core, BGP sessions between route reflectors take a long time to reconverge. The RRs are receiving updates from many clients. Which technology can be implemented to improve convergence time? The network currently uses standard BGP with default timers.
BGP Add-Path
Add-Path allows multiple paths per prefix, enabling fast failover.
BGP TCP MD5 authentication
Why wrong: Authentication adds security overhead and does not aid convergence.
BGP route-refresh
Why wrong: Route-refresh capability allows requesting re-advertisement but does not accelerate convergence after failure.
BGP next-hop-self
Why wrong: Next-hop-self changes next-hop but does not improve convergence.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
BGP Add-Path
BGP Add-Path allows a route reflector to advertise multiple paths for the same prefix to its clients, which reduces the need for clients to re-advertise updates after a failure. This speeds up convergence by enabling the route reflector to immediately select and propagate an alternate path without waiting for BGP reconvergence from other clients. In large service provider networks with many clients, this minimizes the delay caused by the route reflector having only a single best path per prefix.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
BGP Add-Path
Why this is correct
Add-Path allows multiple paths per prefix, enabling fast failover.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
BGP TCP MD5 authentication
Why it's wrong here
Authentication adds security overhead and does not aid convergence.
BGP route-refresh
Why it's wrong here
Route-refresh capability allows requesting re-advertisement but does not accelerate convergence after failure.
BGP next-hop-self
Why it's wrong here
Next-hop-self changes next-hop but does not improve convergence.
Common exam traps
Cisco often tests the misconception that BGP route-refresh or next-hop-self speeds up convergence, but the key is that Add-Path directly reduces reconvergence time by providing pre-computed alternate paths, while the other options address security, soft reconfiguration, or next-hop manipulation without affecting convergence speed.
Detailed technical explanation
BGP Add-Path (RFC 7911) enables a route reflector to advertise multiple paths per prefix to its clients, so the clients have pre-installed backup paths in their RIB. When a primary path fails, the client can immediately switch to an alternate path without waiting for a new BGP update from the route reflector, which is especially beneficial in networks with high prefix counts and many RR clients. The 'additional-paths send' and 'additional-paths receive' commands under the address-family configuration control this behavior, and the route reflector must be configured with 'bgp additional-paths install' to install multiple paths in the local RIB.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A small business has 20 workstations on the 192.168.1.0/24 network and one public IP from its ISP. The router uses PAT (NAT overload) so all 20 devices share one public address using different source ports. NAT questions test whether you understand the four address terms and which direction each translation applies.
What to study next
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FAQ
Networking — This question tests Networking — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: BGP Add-Path — BGP Add-Path allows a route reflector to advertise multiple paths for the same prefix to its clients, which reduces the need for clients to re-advertise updates after a failure. This speeds up convergence by enabling the route reflector to immediately select and propagate an alternate path without waiting for BGP reconvergence from other clients. In large service provider networks with many clients, this minimizes the delay caused by the route reflector having only a single best path per prefix.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 25, 2026
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