This podcast is made by Ran Chen, who holds an EA license, Insurance and Securities licenses (Series 6, 63, 65), and the CFP® designation. He is passionate about opening access to high-quality exam preparation resources and helping learners prepare more effectively for professional certification exams.

In this episode you will learn:

- A router's primary rule for forwarding a packet is always the longest prefix match.

- The longest prefix match rule is applied before a router ever considers Administrative Distance (AD) or metric.

- A more specific route, such as a /26, will always be chosen over a less specific route, like a /24, even if the less specific route has a better AD.

- Administrative Distance and metric are only used as tie-breakers when multiple routes to the exact same destination prefix exist.

- The default route, 0.0.0.0/0, has the shortest prefix and is only used as a last resort when no other route matches the destination.

For more free exam prep tools, practice questions, and AI-powered explanations, visit https://open-exam-prep.com/ or YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Open-exam-prep