07/10/2023, 07:42 BGP Interview Questions | Orhan Ergun

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Orhan Ergun  Wed, 06 Apr 2022

BGP Interview
Questions
Table of Contents 

BGP Interview questions and answers are shared here. In this

post, we will look at some of the important BGP questions
that are asked in the Interviews and some of the certification
exams. You can consider this as a BGP Quiz and test your
BGP knowledge.

Which of the below 

option is the reason to

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run IBGP? (Choose Two)  

A. It is used for the reachability between PE devices in the

MPLS network B. It is used to carry EBGP prefixes inside an
Autonomous System C. It is used with Route Reflectors for the
scalability reason in large scale networks D. It is used to
prevent failures outside your network from impacting your
internal network operation

Answer: One of the correct answers to this question is to

carry EBGP prefixes inside an Autonomous system. IGP is
used for the reachability between PE devices in an MPLS
network. Option C is valid but not the correct answer,
because; the question is asking about the reasons, not the
best practices. Option D is one of the correct answers as well
because, with IBGP, the internal network is protected from
outside failures by separating the local failure domains.
That’s why; the answers to this question are B and D.

Which of the below

options are true for the
BGP Route Reflectors?
(Choose Three)
A. Route Reflectors provide scalability in large scale network
design B. Route Reflectors hide the available paths C. Route
Reflectors selects and advertise only the best path to Route
Reflector clients D. Route Reflectors can be placed anywhere
in the IP backbone as an IPv4 RR 

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Answer: Route reflectors are used to improve the scalability

 
of the BGP design in large-scale deployments. BGP Route
reflectors hide the available path information by selecting
and advertising only the best path to the clients. Thus the
correct answer to this question is A, B, and C. Option D is
wrong because Route Reflectors should follow the physical
topology in an IP backbone, they cannot be placed
everywhere, and careful planning is required. An otherwise
forwarding loop occurs.

Which below attributes

are commonly used for
BGP path manipulation?
(Choose Three)
A. Local Preference B. Origin C. As-Path D. Community E.
Weight Answer: Origin is not used commonly for the BGP
path manipulation. Weight is Cisco preparatory and it is only
local to the routers. It shouldn’t be used for path
manipulation.

The answer to this question is A, C, and D.

Which of the below

options is used in the
Public Internet

Exchange Points to
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reduce configuration  

overhead on the BGP

devices?
A. BGP Route Reflectors B. BGP Prefix Lists C. BGP Route
Servers D. BGP Map Servers

Answer: There is nothing called BGP Map-Servers. In the

Public Internet Exchange points, BGP Route Servers are used
to reduce configuration overhead. They improve scalability.
Very similar to Route Reflectors but Route Reflectors are used
in IBGP, not in the Public Exchange Points. That’s why the
answer to this question is C.

Which below options are

true for the BGP
Confederation? (Choose
Three)
A. It is done by creating a Sub-autonomous system B. It is
easier to migrate from full-mesh IBGP, compare to BGP Route
Reflectors C. Between Sub Autonomous Systems mostly
EBGP rules apply D. Compared to BGP Route Reflector
design, it is less commonly deployed in the networks

Answer: From the migration point of view, Full mesh IBGP to

BGP Confederation is harder, compared to BGP Route 
Reflectors. Thus Option B is invalid. All the other options are
correct thus the answer to this question is A, C, and D

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Which below option is  

used for inbound BGP

path manipulation?
(Choose Three)
A. Local Preference B. MED C. As-Path prepending D.
Community E. Hot Potato Routing

Answer: Hot Potato Routing and Local Preference are used

for Outbound BGP Path manipulation. BGP MED attribute
should be used if there is only one upstream ISP but still it is
used for inbound path manipulation. AS-Path prepending
and the communities are used for the multihoming
connections as well.

That’s why; the answer to this question is B, C, and D.

What does MP-BGP

(Multi-Protocol BGP)
mean?
A. BGP implementation which can converge in less than a
second B. BGP implementation which is used in Service
Provider networks C. BGP implementation which can carry
multiple BGP Address Families D. BGP implementation which
is used in Enterprise Networks

Answer: MP-BGP (Multi-Protocol BGP) is the BGP
implementation, which can carry multiple Address Families.

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BGP in 2016, can carry more than 20 different Address

 
Families such as IPv4 Unicast, IPv6 Unicast, IPv4 Multicast,
L2 VPN, L3VPN, Flowspecand so on. That’s; why; the answer
to this question is C.

What does Hot Potato

Routing mean?
A. Sending the traffic to the most optimum exit for the
neighboring AS B. Sending the traffic to the closest exit to the
neighboring AS C. By coordinating with the neighboring AS,
sending traffic to the closest exit point D. It is the other name
of BGP Multipath Answer: Hot Potato Routing means,
sending the traffic to the closest exit point from the Local
Autonomous system to the neighboring Autonomous System
by taking the IGP metric into consideration. There is no
coordination between the Autonomous System in Hot Potato
Routing definition. But Coordination with the Hot Potato
Routing case study was provided in the BGP Zero to Hero
Course. That’s why; the answer to this question is B

Fictitious Service
Provider is considering
providing an availability
SLA for their MPLS VPN
customers. They want to

provide sub-second
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convergence in case of  

link or node failure

scenarios. What would
you suggest to this
company to achieve its
goal? (Choose Two)
A. Implementing BFD B. Implementing BGP PIC Core and
Edge C. Implementing BGP Route Reflectors D. Implementing
IGP FRR

Answer: They should implement BGP PIC features to protect

BGP from link or node failure. Especially Edge node failures,
even if MPLS Traffic Engineering or IP FRR deployed, couldn’t
be recovered in a sub-second. Since BGP PIC convergence
mostly depends on IGP convergence as well, deploying IGP
FRR (Fast Reroute) provides the necessary infrastructure for
the BGP PIC. They should be deployed together. BFD is just a
failure detection mechanism. IGP Convergence depends on
many other parameters tuningThat’s why; the answer to this
question is B and D

With which below

options, the internal
BGP speaker can 

receive more than one

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best path even if BGP  

Route Reflectors are

deployed? (Choose
Three)
A. BGP Shadow RR B. BGP Shadow Sessions C. BGP Add-path
D. BGP Confederation E. BGP Multipath

Answer: BGP Shadow Sessions, BGP Shadow RR, and BGP

Add-path design provide more than the best path to the
internal BGP speaker even if BGP Route Reflectors are
deployed. BGP Multipath requires more than one best path
and all the path attributes to be the same. Thus it requires
one of the above mechanisms. BGP Confederation doesn’t
provide this functionality. That’s why; the answer to this
question is A, B, and C.

Which below option is

recommended to send
more than one best
path to the VPN PEs in
the MPLS VPN
deployment if VPN
Route Reflectors are 

deployed?
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A. BGP Add-path B. BGP Shadow RR C. BGP Full Mesh D.

 
Unique RD per VRF per PE

Answer: BGP Add-path, BGP Shadow RR, and Sessions

deployments are suitable for the IP backbones. If there is an
MPLS backbone, configuring unique RD per VRF per PE is the
best and recommended design option since there is no
software or hardware upgrade, no additional BGP sessions,
and so on. That’s why the answer to this question is D

What are the reasons to

send more than one BGP
best path in IP and MPLS
deployment? (Choose
Four)
A. BGP Multipath B. BGP Fast Reroute C. BGP Multihop D.
Preventing Routing Oscillation E. Optimal BGP routing

Answer: There are many reasons to send more than one BGP
best path in both IP and MPLS deployments. These are;
avoiding routing oscillations, BGP Multipathing, Fast
convergence/Fast Reroute, and Optimal Routing. Sometimes
for optimal routing, just sending more than one BGP best
path is not enough but may require all available paths
though. That’s why, the answer to this question is A, B, D, and
E

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What is the drawback of  

sending more than one

BGP best path in BGP?
A. More resource usage B. Sub Optimal Routing C. Slower
Convergence D. Security Risk Answer: Sending more than
one BGP best path requires more memory, CPU, and network
bandwidth, thus more resource usage in the network. As a
rule of thumb, whenever more information is sent, it
consumes more resources and may provide optimal routing,
better high availability, and better convergence. All other
options are wrong, except Option A

What below options are

the advantages of the
Full Mesh IBGP design
compare to BGP Route
Reflector design?
(Choose Four)
A. It can provide more optimal routing compared to Route
Reflector design B. It can provide faster routing convergence
compared to Route Reflector design C. It provides better
resource usage compared to the Route Reflector design D. It
can provide better protection against route churn E.
Multipath information is difficult to propagate in a route
reflector topologies 

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Answer: Although there are advantages of using BGP Route

 
Reflectors, there are many drawbacks as well. Probably it is
more harmful than deploying Full Mesh IBGP if the
requirement is optimal routing, faster convergence, and
avoiding route churns. Sending multiple paths is difficult
since it requires Shadow Sessions, RR, or Add-path
deployments in Route Reflector topologies. Full Mesh IBGP
design consumes more device and network resources and
requires more configurations on the devices compared to
Route Reflector design. That’s why the answer to this
question is A, B, D, and E

Which below options are

true for the BGP PIC
deployment? (Choose
Two)
A. BGP PIC can provide sub-second convergence even if
there are millions of prefixes in the routing table B. BGP edge
devices don’t have to receive more than one best path for
BGP PIC Edge to work C. BGP PIC Edge can protect both
from Edge link and Node failure D. BGP PIC has to work with
BGP Add-Path

Answer: BGP edge nodes have to receive more than one best
path for BGP PIC Edge operation. This was explained in the
BGP chapter in detail. BGP Add-Path is one of the
mechanisms, which is used to send multiple paths even if RR
is deployed in the network. But BGP Add-Path is not 
mandatory for BGP PIC. BGP PIC Edge can protect from both
Edge link and node failures and can provide sub-second

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convergence even if there are millions of prefixes. That’s why

 
the correct answer to this question is A and C These are
some of the BGP Interview Questions we encounter in real
life, if you would like to see more BGP interview questions,
please let us know. You can share this post if you would like to
see more BGP Interview Questions or BGP certification exam
questions and the answers.

In the below topology

there are two data
centers of the Service
Provider. If the
requirement were to
provide the closest exit
for the Route Reflector
clients, in which data
center would you deploy
the Route Reflectors?

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 

A. In West DC B. In East DC C. Doesn’t matter the placement

D. Both in East and West DC

Answer: Route Reflectors should be placed in both East and

West DC. Otherwise, Route Reflector would choose the best
path from their point of view and would send the best path to
the Route Reflector Clients from their best path. If RR would
be placed in West DC, all BGP RR Clients in East DC would
choose the West DC IGW (Internet Gateways) as the exit
point and vice versa. Thus the correct answer to this question
is D

Author:

Orhan Ergun

Orhan Ergun, CCIE/CCDE Trainer, Author of Many

Networking Books, Network Design Advisor, and 
Cisco Champion 2019/2020/2021

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He created OrhanErgun.Net 10 years ago

 
and has been serving the IT industry with his
renowned and awarded training.

Wrote many books, mostly on Network

Design, joined many IETF RFCs, gave Public
talks at many Forums, and mentored
thousands of his students.

Today, with his carefully selected instructors,

OrhanErgun.Net is providing IT courses to
tens of thousands of IT engineers.

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