CCNA: Cisco Certified Network Associate — Question 472

A packet from a company's branch office is destined to host 172.31.0.1 at headquarters. The sending router has three possible matches in its routing table for the packet: prefixes 172.31.0.0/16, 172.31.0.0/24, and 172.31.0.0/25. How does the router handle the packet?

Answer options

• A. It sends the traffic via prefix 172.31.0.0/24.
• B. It sends the traffic via prefix 172.31.0.0/16.
• C. It sends the traffic via prefix 172.31.0.0/25.
• D. It sends the traffic via the default gateway 0.0.0.0/0.

Correct answer: C

Explanation

The correct answer is C because the router uses the most specific prefix that matches the destination IP address. In this case, 172.31.0.0/25 is the most specific match for the host 172.31.0.1, while the other prefixes are less specific and thus not chosen.