What information does traceroute provide that helps in troubleshooting?

• A. Traceroute maps the network topology diagram of the path
• B. Traceroute reveals the full traffic content of the packets
• C. Traceroute shows the path and per-hop latency to a destination
• D. Traceroute provides DNS resolution results for the destination

Answer: (C)

Traceroute helps you troubleshoot by revealing the path packets take to a destination and the time it takes to reach each hop along that path. By sending probes and recording the router that responds and the round-trip time for each hop, you get a hop-by-hop view of the route and where delays or timeouts occur. This makes it possible to spot exactly where latency is added or where a route fails, such as a slow link or a non-responsive hop.

It’s important to know what it does not do: it doesn’t show the full contents of the traffic or inspect payloads, so you won’t see any actual data being carried. It also won’t automatically produce a complete network topology diagram, though it may display hostnames for some hops if name resolution is available. The most useful takeaway is the path and per-hop latency, which helps identify where troubleshooting should focus.