350-501 Networking Practice Question
A service provider's network is experiencing suboptimal routing for BGP prefixes received from a customer. The customer is multihomed to two different PE routers in the same AS. Which BGP feature can ensure that traffic ingresses via the correct PE?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the distinction between attributes that influence inbound vs. outbound traffic, and the trap here is confusing Local Preference (outbound) with MED (inbound) when both are used for path selection within an AS.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
MED
MED (Multi-Exit Discriminator) is the correct BGP attribute for influencing inbound traffic from a multihomed customer. When the customer advertises the same prefix to two PE routers in the same AS, setting a lower MED value on one PE will cause the customer's upstream AS to prefer that path for returning traffic. This allows the service provider to control which PE receives the ingress traffic without altering any outbound routing policies.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
MED
Why this is correct
MED is used to influence inbound traffic by advertising different metrics to different peers.
- ✗
Local Preference
Why it's wrong here
Local Preference is used for outbound path selection within an AS.
- ✗
AS-path prepend
Why it's wrong here
AS-path prepend makes a path less preferred for outbound selection.
- ✗
Weight
Why it's wrong here
Weight is a Cisco proprietary attribute that affects path selection for routes from the same router.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 350-501 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Cisco certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 350-501 exam.