If two or more paths to the same destination have identical metrics, what will the router do?

• A. Use equal-cost load balancing
• B. Prefer a single path with the lowest metric
• C. Choose the path with the most hops
• D. Drop the extra paths

Answer: (A)

When two or more paths to the same destination have identical metrics, the router uses equal-cost multipath routing. It keeps all of those equal-cost routes active and distributes traffic among them instead of sticking to just one path. This load balancing can be done per destination or per flow, depending on the router’s implementation, which helps maximize bandwidth and provides redundancy. If one path fails, the router can continue sending traffic over the remaining equal-cost paths without needing to recompute a new single best path. The other options describe behaviors that don’t utilize multiple equal-cost paths: choosing a single path ignores the extra available routes, selecting by hop count isn’t how metrics-based routing works, and dropping extra paths wastes the gained reliability and capacity.