Which of the following path attributes is the first rule when making path selection?

a. Local Preference
b. Shortest AS_PATH
c. Weight
d. Self-Originated

c. Weight
Explanation: These rules are more Cisco-centric, but they generally apply to most of the BGP routers of other vendors as well.
Weight: This is a Cisco proprietary attribute assigned locally to your router. This attribute applies only to Cisco routers. This attribute affects only the local router. In situations in which there are multiple routes, BGP selects the route with the highest weight.
Local Preference: This indicates which path to the AS has local preference. The local preference is shared among the iBGP routers within the same AS. Local preferences are widely used to influence the route or path selection as it propagates throughout the AS. The highest preference is preferred. The default is 100 .
Self-Originated: The routes locally originated by BGP running on this router would always be preferred over routes learned by other routers or other BGP networks.
Shortest AS_PATH: This selection is made based on which route has the shortest AS path. Every route records every AS it must go through. This makes up an AS path. Every BGP router examines the path of the AS the route must take before reaching the BGP router. The shortest AS path is preferred. This is used by BGP only when there is a "tie" when comparing weight, local preference, and locally originated versus aggregate addresses.