Cisco Updated 200-301 Exam Questions and Answers by zander

A router installs the best route by applying two major rules: longest prefix match and administrative distance. Prefix length is considered first when routes describe different destination scopes; the more specific prefix wins for destinations inside that range. When routes have the same prefix length but come from different routing sources, the route with the lower administrative distance is preferred. In the answer set, the OSPF route to 10.0.0.0/30 is chosen over competing routes to the same /30 because OSPF has a better administrative distance than RIP and iBGP. The EIGRP host route to 10.0.0.1/32 is also installed because it is a more specific route to that single host. Cisco CCNA 200-301 v1.1 IP Connectivity requires engineers to interpret routing tables using these exact rules. The OSPF /16 is broader and does not replace a more specific /30 for matching destinations. The route table can contain both a network route and a host route when their prefixes differ.

Answer D is the technically correct selection. Virtual machines are operating system instances decoupled from the physical server hardware. The hypervisor presents virtual CPU, memory, disk, and NIC resources so multiple VMs can run on one host. This aligns with Cisco CCNA 200-301 v1.1 because the exam blueprint requires engineers to recognize operational behaviour from configuration symptoms and topology requirements. The VM does not manage host resources itself, and the physical server can run multiple OS instances concurrently through virtualization. Treat the distractors carefully: most are real Cisco terms, but they solve a different problem or operate at a different layer. The selected answer is the one that would be used by an engineer on the device or in the design to produce the outcome stated in the question.

Spanning Tree elects the root bridge by comparing bridge IDs. The bridge ID is made from the bridge priority, the extended system ID, and the switch MAC address. The lowest bridge ID wins. If one switch has a lower priority than the others, it becomes root regardless of MAC address. If priorities are equal, the lowest MAC address breaks the tie. In this exhibit, SW3 has the best root-bridge election value, so it becomes the root bridge. Cisco CCNA 200-301 v1.1 Network Access expects engineers to be comfortable reading STP election data because the root placement affects forwarding paths and blocked ports. The decision is not based on physical position in the diagram, interface speed alone, or switch name. It is a deterministic comparison of STP identifiers. Once the root bridge is elected, every nonroot switch selects its root port based on lowest path cost toward that root. The elected root for this configuration is SW3.

The root bridge is the switch with the lowest bridge ID in the spanning-tree instance. The bridge ID comparison starts with priority. If priorities tie, the lower MAC address wins. In many exam exhibits, the correct root is not the switch drawn at the top or center of the topology; it is the switch with the numerically lowest STP identifier. For this exhibit, S2 has the lowest resulting bridge ID, so it becomes the root bridge. Cisco CCNA 200-301 v1.1 Network Access expects engineers to calculate this cleanly because root selection determines which links forward and which links block. Once S2 is elected, all other switches calculate their lowest-cost path back to S2 and choose root ports accordingly. Design practice is to place the root bridge deliberately, normally near the distribution layer, rather than leaving the outcome to MAC address tie-breakers. In this question, the election result is S2, which maps to answer B.