Which characteristic best describes static routes in terms of resource usage?

• A. They use fewer CPU cycles and bandwidth for routing calculations, at the cost of manual maintenance
• B. They automatically adapt to topology changes
• C. They require exchanging neighbor information
• D. They always find the best path after a link failure

Answer: (A)

Static routes minimize resource use because the router isn’t running a routing protocol or exchanging updates. Once you configure a path manually, the router forwards packets along that path without performing ongoing route calculations or exchanging neighbor information, which saves CPU cycles and bandwidth used for routing traffic. The trade-off is maintenance: when the network changes, you must manually adjust the static routes, which can become cumbersome.

The other ideas don’t describe static routes well. Static routes don’t automatically adapt to topology changes unless you add new manual entries or use backups; they do not require exchanging neighbor information because there’s no dynamic routing protocol running; and they don’t inherently find a new best path after a link failure unless you’ve configured additional backups or other mechanisms.