What is the role of the exit interface in a routing table entry?

• A. It identifies the interface through which the packet should be forwarded toward the next hop.
• B. It indicates the network's default route.
• C. It specifies the next hop IP address only.
• D. It is used to determine the administrative distance.

Answer: (A)

The exit interface is the outbound path the router uses to actually send the packet toward its next hop. After the routing decision picks the destination network, the router needs to know which physical or logical interface to transmit the frame through. That interface determines the egress port and the link over which the packet should travel to reach the next hop or final destination.

In practice, a routing table entry includes the destination network and either a next-hop IP address, an exit interface, or both. The exit interface alone tells the router which interface to forward out on, while the next-hop IP provides the next-hop address to reach. The administrative distance is about how confident the router is in a route from different sources, not about where to send the packet. The default route is a special route that tells the router where to send traffic for destinations not in the local routing table, and it’s identified by the route to 0.0.0.0/0, not by the exit interface concept itself.