BGP Interview Questions and Answers
Freshers / Beginner level questions & answers
Ques 1. What is BGP?
BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) is a standardized exterior gateway protocol used to exchange routing and reachability information between different autonomous systems (ASes) on the Internet.
Ques 2. Explain the difference between eBGP and iBGP.
eBGP (External BGP) is used between routers in different autonomous systems, while iBGP (Internal BGP) is used between routers within the same autonomous system.
Ques 3. What is the AS_PATH attribute in BGP?
The AS_PATH attribute is used to track the autonomous systems that a route has traversed. It helps prevent routing loops.
Ques 4. What is the purpose of the NEXT_HOP attribute in BGP?
The NEXT_HOP attribute in BGP specifies the next-hop IP address that should be used to reach the destination specified in the BGP route.
Ques 5. How does BGP prevent routing loops?
BGP prevents routing loops by using the AS_PATH attribute and refusing to accept a route if its own AS appears in the AS_PATH list.
Ques 6. What is BGP Confederation Identifier?
BGP Confederation Identifier is a BGP attribute used in BGP confederation to identify the confederation to which a router belongs.
Ques 7. Explain BGP route refresh.
BGP route refresh is a mechanism that allows a BGP router to request an immediate update of its BGP routing table from its peers without tearing down the BGP session.
Ques 8. What is the purpose of the BGP ORIGIN attribute?
The BGP ORIGIN attribute indicates the origin of the route, such as whether it is learned from an Interior Gateway Protocol (IGP), EGP (Exterior Gateway Protocol), or is locally originated.
Ques 9. Explain BGP route withdrawal process.
BGP route withdrawal occurs when a BGP router advertises a prefix with the route's next hop set to an unreachable IP address, effectively withdrawing the route from the routing table.
Ques 10. What is the purpose of the BGP UPDATE message?
The BGP UPDATE message is used to convey routing information between BGP peers. It includes information about new routes, withdrawn routes, and modifications to existing routes.
Ques 11. Explain BGP route advertisement process.
BGP route advertisement involves a router informing its BGP peers about the routes it has learned. This process helps build and update the BGP routing tables across the network.
Ques 12. What is the purpose of the BGP NLRI (Network Layer Reachability Information) field?
The BGP NLRI field carries information about the IP prefixes and their associated routing attributes that are being advertised in a BGP UPDATE message.
Intermediate / 1 to 5 years experienced level questions & answers
Ques 13. How does BGP select the best route?
BGP uses the BGP decision process, which considers factors like the highest weight, local preference, AS_PATH length, origin type, and the router ID to select the best route.
Ques 14. Explain BGP route aggregation.
BGP route aggregation involves combining multiple IP prefixes into a single, summarized route. It helps reduce the size of the routing table.
Ques 15. What is BGP synchronization?
BGP synchronization is a mechanism that ensures that routes learned from iBGP peers are not used until they are synchronized with an IGP (Interior Gateway Protocol) in the same AS.
Ques 16. Explain the concept of BGP peer groups.
BGP peer groups are used to simplify the configuration and management of multiple BGP neighbors by grouping them together and applying common configuration parameters.
Ques 17. What is a BGP community attribute?
A BGP community is a tag that can be attached to a route, providing a way to group routes and apply policies based on these groups.
Ques 18. Explain BGP confederation.
BGP confederation is a method used to divide an AS into smaller sub-ASes, making BGP more scalable by reducing the number of routes exchanged between them.
Ques 19. What is BGP route filtering?
BGP route filtering is the process of controlling the routes that are advertised or accepted based on defined criteria, such as prefix lists or route maps.
Ques 20. What is BGP maximum-prefix limit?
BGP maximum-prefix limit is a mechanism to prevent a BGP router from being overwhelmed by a large number of advertised prefixes by imposing a limit on the number of accepted prefixes.
Ques 21. Explain BGP prefix delegation.
BGP prefix delegation involves assigning specific IP prefixes to different entities within an AS, allowing for better control and management of address space.
Ques 22. Explain BGP TTL security check.
BGP TTL security check is a feature that checks the Time-to-Live (TTL) value in the IP header of BGP packets to prevent certain types of BGP attacks, such as TTL exhaustion attacks.
Ques 23. What is the BGP MED (Multi-Exit Discriminator) attribute used for?
The BGP MED attribute is used to influence the path selection process by indicating the preferred exit point from an AS when multiple exit points exist.
Ques 24. What is the purpose of BGP community string?
A BGP community string is a 32-bit value that can be attached to a BGP route. It is often used for policy-based routing and filtering.
Ques 25. What is BGP graceful restart?
BGP graceful restart is a mechanism that allows a BGP router to continue forwarding traffic using the previously known BGP routing information during a restart, reducing the impact of a restart on the network.
Ques 26. Explain BGP route summarization.
BGP route summarization involves representing multiple IP prefixes with a single, summarized route, reducing the size of the BGP routing table.
Experienced / Expert level questions & answers
Ques 27. What is BGP route dampening?
BGP route dampening is a mechanism to minimize the impact of route flapping by penalizing unstable routes and suppressing them for a certain period.
Ques 28. Explain BGP route reflectors.
BGP route reflectors are used in iBGP to reduce the number of peer connections and simplify the iBGP mesh by allowing certain routers to reflect routes to others.
Ques 29. Explain BGP add-path feature.
BGP add-path allows a BGP router to advertise multiple paths for the same prefix, improving path diversity and redundancy in the network.
Ques 30. Explain the BGP best path selection process.
BGP best path selection process involves evaluating various attributes, such as weight, local preference, AS_PATH, origin, MED, and the router ID, to determine the best route for a destination.
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