Which statement describes a broadcast address?

• A. The address with all host bits set to 1
• B. The address with all network bits set to 1
• C. The address with all bits set to 0
• D. The address of the default gateway

Answer: (A)

Broadcast addresses are defined as the IP address where all the host bits in the subnet are set to 1. In IPv4, each subnet has a network portion and a host portion determined by the subnet mask. The network can reach every device on that subnet by sending a packet to the broadcast address, which is why all the host bits being 1 is the key characteristic. For example, in a 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, the broadcast address is 192.168.1.255—the host portion (the last octet) is all ones.

In contrast, the network address is the address with all host bits set to 0, used to identify the subnet itself. The address with all network bits set to 1 isn’t the broadcast address and isn’t a standard special address in the same way. The default gateway address is simply one host address on the network, not the broadcast address.