Root bridge election is based on comparing each switch's full Bridge Identifier, which combines the bridge priority value with the switch's MAC address, with priority always evaluated first and MAC address serving strictly as a tiebreaker when two or more switches present identical priority values. In this scenario, the network has been left entirely at the default spanning-tree configuration, meaning every switch is operating at the standard IEEE and Junos default bridge priority of 32768; since all three switches share the exact same priority value, the comparison necessarily falls through to the MAC address tiebreak, where the switch with the numerically lowest MAC address wins the election. Comparing the three addresses shown — 00:1a:2b:3c:4d:01, 00:1a:2b:3c:4d:02, and 00:1a:2b:3c:4d:03 — Switch A's address is the lowest, since only the final octet differs and 01 is less than both 02 and 03, making Switch A the elected root bridge. RSTP uses the identical Bridge ID comparison mechanism as legacy STP for root election, so there is no special 'median MAC address' rule that applies uniquely under RSTP, making that distractor factually invalid regardless of protocol version. The election process also does not require any manual bridge priority configuration to complete; the default priority value is entirely sufficient on its own to allow a deterministic election to occur, since default priorities are still numerically comparable Bridge IDs. Reference topics: Junos Enterprise Switching – Spanning Tree Protocols, Default Priority and MAC Address Tiebreaking.