mediumMultiple Choice
350-401 Practice Question: Router bgp 65000 bgp router-id 10.0.0.1 neighbor…
router bgp 65000
bgp router-id 10.0.0.1
neighbor 10.0.0.2 remote-as 65001 neighbor 10.0.0.2 route-map SET_MED out
! route-map SET_MED permit 10 set metric 50 ! What is the effect of this configuration on routes advertised to 10.0.0.2?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the distinction between outbound and inbound route-map application, and the trap here is confusing the 'set metric' command (which sets MED) with 'set local-preference' or assuming that MED cannot be set on outbound updates.
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
✓
All routes sent to 10.0.0.2 will have the MED value set to 50.
The route-map SET_MED is applied to outbound updates to neighbor 10.0.0.2, and the 'set metric 50' command sets the Multi-Exit Discriminator (MED) attribute to 50 for all routes advertised to that neighbor. The MED is a metric used to influence inbound traffic from the AS of the neighbor, and it is propagated to the neighbor's BGP table.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
All routes sent to 10.0.0.2 will have the MED value set to 50.
Why this is correct
With the route-map applied to the neighbor in the outbound direction, every BGP route that is being advertised toward 10.0.0.2 is processed through the 'set metric 50' command. This sets the MULTI_EXIT_DISC (MED) attribute to 50 on those advertised routes, thereby signaling the external peer that this path is more preferred for incoming traffic. Since the direction is explicitly 'out', the policy applies only to updates leaving the router toward 10.0.0.2.
- ✗
Routes received from 10.0.0.2 will have their MED set to 50.
Why it's wrong here
The 'out' keyword in the neighbor route-map command confines the policy to outbound BGP updates only. Routes received from 10.0.0.2 are processed by any route-map applied with the 'in' keyword, but no such inbound route-map is referenced in the configuration. Therefore, the MED of routes learned from 10.0.0.2 remains unchanged; it is not forced to 50 by this outbound-only route-map.
- ✗
The local preference of routes sent to 10.0.0.2 is set to 50.
Why it's wrong here
The BGP command 'set metric' explicitly configures the MED attribute, which is the inter-AS tie-breaker for inbound traffic. Local preference is a separate BGP attribute used for intra-AS route selection, and it is changed with 'set local-preference' instead of 'set metric'. Since the route-map only includes 'set metric 50', the local preference of routes advertised to 10.0.0.2 is left at its default (typically 100), so this option incorrectly equates MED with local preference.
- ✗
The configuration is invalid because MED cannot be set on outbound updates.
Why it's wrong here
Setting MED on outbound BGP updates is both valid and commonly used in real-world configurations, particularly to influence how an eBGP neighbor chooses between multiple paths into your AS. The MED attribute is carried in BGP UPDATE messages, so it can be modified at the point of advertisement by a route-map. There is no BGP rule that prohibits changing MED on outbound updates; the default behavior simply advertises the existing MED, but 'set metric' overrides it. Therefore, the configuration is not invalid.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This 350-401 question is part of Courseiva's 1,923-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam 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 350-401 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 350-401 exam.