Which of the following is a drawback of traditional STP?

Traditional Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) has a significant drawback related to convergence speed. When a topology change occurs within a network, STP can take a considerable amount of time to react to that change and reconfigure the network accordingly. This slow convergence can lead to issues such as brief network outages or disruptions, especially in large environments where multiple switches are interconnected.

As network conditions change—like a link going down or a switch being added—the protocol must undergo a process that includes listening, learning, and forwarding states, which spans several seconds. This delay can impact real-time applications and overall network performance, making slow convergence a notable issue in dynamic network environments where rapid failover is critical.

In contrast, characteristics such as fast convergence times and loop-free topology are strengths of STP rather than drawbacks. High bandwidth usage is not inherently an issue with traditional STP; if anything, it helps maintain a loop-free network without requiring excess bandwidth for control messages. Therefore, the slow convergence speed accurately represents a significant limitation of traditional STP in today’s networking scenarios.