350-501 Networking Practice Question
In a Layer 3 MPLS VPN, a CE router is dual-homed to two different PE routers. The PE routers advertise the same prefix to the route reflector with different route targets. What ensures that only the best path is installed in the VRF?
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
✓
Each PE router independently selects the best path based on BGP attributes.
BGP path selection applies within the VRF. The route with higher local preference or shorter IGP metric to the next-hop determines the best path. Route targets are used for import/export only.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Each PE router independently selects the best path based on BGP attributes.
Why this is correct
BGP best path selection runs in the VRF context on each PE, using standard attributes.
- ✗
The route reflector discards duplicate prefixes.
Why it's wrong here
Route reflectors only reflect routes; they do not perform best path selection for VRFs.
- ✗
MPLS labels ensure that only one path is used.
Why it's wrong here
Labels do not affect BGP path selection.
- ✗
The CE router must advertise the same route to only one PE.
Why it's wrong here
CE can advertise to both; the PE selects best path.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every 350-501 question from scratch — 971 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.