NSE7 Advanced Networking and SD-WAN Practice Question
An administrator needs to ensure that traffic from the internal network (10.0.0.0/8) destined to the Internet is routed through a specific next-hop (192.168.1.1) only if a more specific route for the destination does not exist. Which routing feature should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse policy-based routing with static routes and administrative distance, thinking that a higher AD default route will somehow be ignored when a more specific route exists, but in reality, the default route is only used when no other route matches, so it does not provide the conditional override that PBR with a deny rule does.
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
✓
Use policy-based routing with a deny rule for the specific prefixes that have more specific routes.
Policy-based routing (PBR) allows you to define a policy that matches traffic destined to specific prefixes and applies a deny action, effectively bypassing the PBR for those destinations. This ensures that traffic with a more specific route in the routing table uses that route, while all other traffic (without a more specific route) is forced through the next-hop 192.168.1.1 via a set ip next-hop command in the PBR policy.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Configure route redistribution from BGP to OSPF.
Why it's wrong here
Redistribution does not affect forwarding decisions based on route existence.
- ✗
Enable ECMP load balancing.
Why it's wrong here
ECMP is for load balancing among equal-cost routes, not for conditional routing.
- ✓
Use policy-based routing with a deny rule for the specific prefixes that have more specific routes.
Why this is correct
PBR can be configured to not match traffic that matches a more specific route by using a deny policy in the route map or by setting a higher priority for the specific route.
- ✗
Create a static default route with a higher administrative distance.
Why it's wrong here
That would only affect default route selection, not override for specific destinations.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This NSE7 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Fortinet 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 NSE7 exam.