Cisco CCNA 200-301 Practice Question

In Rapid PVST+, a port that is in the discarding state and serves as a backup path to the root bridge is known as an alternate port. The alternate port provides redundancy by being available if the root port fails, but it remains in the discarding state to prevent switching loops. The learning state is a transitional state where the port prepares to forward traffic, but in this scenario, the port is not indicated to be transitioning. A port with a misconfigured duplex setting may cause connectivity issues but does not define a specific spanning tree role or state. A designated port forwards traffic on its segment and would be in the forwarding state, not discarding.