The answer is to increase the administrative distance of OSPF routes to 120 or decrease the administrative distance of BGP routes to 5. This works because FortiGate uses administrative distance as the primary metric to select which routing protocol’s route is installed in the forwarding table when multiple protocols provide a route to the same destination; a lower administrative distance is always preferred. On the Fortinet NSE 7 Advanced Security NSE7 exam, this concept tests your understanding of route selection fundamentals and the default AD values—OSPF defaults to 110, while BGP defaults to 20 for eBGP and 200 for iBGP. A common trap is forgetting that simply redistributing routes does not change preference; you must explicitly adjust the AD to make BGP routes preferred over OSPF routes. A useful memory tip is “lower is lord”—the protocol with the lowest administrative distance rules the routing table.
NSE7 Troubleshooting and Diagnostics Practice Question
This NSE7 practice question tests your understanding of troubleshooting and diagnostics. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
An organization uses FortiGate with OSPF and BGP. Recently, routes from BGP are not being preferred over OSPF routes, causing suboptimal routing. The administrator wants to ensure BGP routes are preferred. Which two actions can achieve this? (Choose two.)
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Decrease the administrative distance of BGP routes to 5.
Option A is correct because decreasing the administrative distance (AD) of BGP routes to 5 makes them more trustworthy than OSPF routes (default AD 110). Since a lower AD is preferred, BGP routes will be installed in the routing table over OSPF routes, ensuring BGP is preferred for forwarding decisions.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✓
Decrease the administrative distance of BGP routes to 5.
Why this is correct
Decreasing BGPAD to 5 makes it more preferred over OSPF AD 110.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Configure route-map to set metric to 1 on BGP routes.
Why it's wrong here
Metric is a different attribute and not used for comparing different routing protocols.
✓
Increase the administrative distance of OSPF routes to 120.
Why this is correct
Increasing OSPFAD to 120 makes BGP (AD 20) more preferred.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Set a higher weight on BGP routes for the prefixes.
Why it's wrong here
Weight influences BGP best path selection but does not affect comparison with OSPF.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse inter-protocol route selection (governed by administrative distance) with intra-protocol BGP path selection attributes (like weight, local preference, or metric), leading them to incorrectly choose options that modify BGP-specific attributes that have no effect on OSPF vs. BGP preference.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Administrative distance is a Cisco-originated concept adopted by FortiGate to rank routes from different routing protocols; OSPF defaults to 110, while eBGP defaults to 20 and iBGP to 200. By lowering BGP's AD to 5 (or raising OSPF's AD to 120), the administrator forces BGP routes to be installed in the routing table, overriding OSPF. In real-world scenarios, this is often used when BGP learns a more specific prefix that should take precedence over an OSPF summary, or when manipulating AD is preferred over complex route-maps or policy-based routing.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A network engineer at a university connects two campus buildings via a fibre link. Both routers run OSPF, but no adjacency forms — even though both routers can ping each other. The engineer finds one router is in area 0 and the other in area 1. OSPF adjacency requires matching area numbers, hello/dead timers, and network type. IP reachability alone is not enough.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Troubleshooting and Diagnostics — This question tests Troubleshooting and Diagnostics — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Decrease the administrative distance of BGP routes to 5. — Option A is correct because decreasing the administrative distance (AD) of BGP routes to 5 makes them more trustworthy than OSPF routes (default AD 110). Since a lower AD is preferred, BGP routes will be installed in the routing table over OSPF routes, ensuring BGP is preferred for forwarding decisions.
What should I do if I get this NSE7 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
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.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.