How many port states are listed for STP in the material?

• A. 4
• B. 5
• C. 6
• D. 3

Answer: (B)

STP uses five distinct port states to manage how a switch handles frames while preventing loops. The states are Disabled (administratively shut down), Blocking (no forwarding but BPDU processing to prevent loops), Listening (processes BPDUs and prepares to learn), Learning (builds the MAC address table but doesn’t forward data), and Forwarding (normal data forwarding with BPDU processing). Because these five states are defined in classic STP, the material lists five port states. (Note: newer variants like RSTP use a different, simplified set, but for STP the count is five.)