What is the purpose of a default route in a routing table?

• A. Directs Traffic to the Default Route
• B. Drops All Traffic
• C. Enables Load Balancing
• D. Forwards Packets to the Default Gateway

Answer: (D)

A default route serves as a last-resort path in a routing table. When a packet’s destination doesn’t match any more specific route, the router uses the default route to forward it toward its next hop, which is typically the default gateway on the local network. This is why saying it forwards packets to the default gateway best captures its purpose: the gateway is the exit point from the local network to reach external networks like the internet. It doesn’t drop traffic by default, and it doesn’t by itself provide load balancing—those require other configurations or multiple routes.