easyMultiple Choice
350-401 The maximum hop count for EIGRP? Practice Question
What is the maximum hop count for EIGRP?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the distinction between the default hop count (100) and the maximum hop count (255), leading candidates to mistakenly select 128 or 15 due to confusion with other protocols or default values.
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
✓
255
EIGRP uses a maximum hop count of 255 to prevent routing loops, which is a hard limit enforced by the protocol. This value is configurable via the 'metric maximum-hops' command under the EIGRP process, but the absolute maximum is 255. Unlike distance-vector protocols like RIP, EIGRP is an advanced distance-vector protocol that uses the Diffusing Update Algorithm (DUAL) for loop avoidance, but the hop count serves as a final safety mechanism.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
255
Why this is correct
EIGRP uses a 1-byte field to track hop count, which gives it an absolute ceiling of 255. This limit applies regardless of metric values, so even a route with a very low composite metric becomes unreachable if it traverses more than 255 routers. The value 255 is thus the finite, hard-coded maximum, and any route advertising a hop count beyond that is considered invalid.
- ✗
15
Why it's wrong here
15 is the classic maximum hop count for RIP, where the limit is part of the protocol's loop-prevention design: any route with a hop count of 16 is considered unreachable. EIGRP, by contrast, is not constrained to such a small number because it uses a more sophisticated metric based on bandwidth, delay, load, and reliability, plus a separate hop count field. Choosing 15 confuses RIP's hop-count ceiling with EIGRP's much larger, but still finite, limit of 255.
- ✗
128
Why it's wrong here
128 is not a meaningful hop-count boundary in EIGRP; it does not correspond to any field size or protocol threshold. While some routing protocols or implementations use 128 for administrative distance or other metrics, EIGRP's hop count is stored in a single octet, so any value below 256 is permissible. Thus 128 is simply an arbitrary number that might be mistaken for a power-of-two limit, but EIGRP permits up to 255 hops.
- ✗
Unlimited
Why it's wrong here
EIGRP is not unlimited in hop count, despite its advanced metric-based path selection. The protocol explicitly encodes hop count in a one-byte field, so the maximum is 255; a route with a hop count of 256 or more cannot be represented and will not be installed in the routing table. Even if the composite metric is excellent, the hop count is a separate hard limit, so 'unlimited' is factually incorrect for EIGRP.
Visual reference
Quick reference
Routing Protocol Comparison
| Protocol | Metric | Max Hops | Algorithm | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RIP v2 | Hop count | 15 | Bellman-Ford | Distance vector |
| OSPF | Cost (bandwidth) | Unlimited | Dijkstra (SPF) | Link state |
| EIGRP | Composite metric | Unlimited | DUAL | Hybrid |
| IS-IS | Cost | Unlimited | Dijkstra | Link state |
| BGP | Policy / attributes | Unlimited | Path vector | Path vector |
RIP's 15-hop limit makes it unsuitable for large networks. OSPF and EIGRP dominate modern enterprise deployments.
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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.