A routing table tells a router where to forward packets based on their destination IP address.

• Destination — the network address in CIDR notation
• Gateway — the next-hop router IP
• Interface — the physical or virtual NIC used
• Metric — cost/priority (lower = preferred)

Longest Prefix Match: When multiple routes match a destination IP, the route with the longest (most specific) subnet mask wins. For example, 192.168.1.0/24 is preferred over 192.168.0.0/16 because /24 is more specific than /16.

The default route 0.0.0.0/0 matches all destinations and is used as a last resort when no more specific route exists.

If two routes have the same prefix length, the one with the lower metric is chosen.