When Host A sends an ARP request without knowing its default gateway's MAC address, which hosts will receive the request?

When Host A sends an ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) request to find the MAC address of its default gateway, the request is broadcast to all devices in the local network segment. ARP requests are designed to be sent as broadcast frames because the sender does not yet know the MAC address of the target device it is trying to communicate with.

In a typical local area network, when Host A sends this ARP request, all hosts connected to the same network segment will receive that broadcast. This includes Host B and Host C, which are presumably on the same subnet as Host A. They can recognize that the request is for the IP address of the default gateway and will either ignore it (if they are not the target) or respond with their own MAC address if applicable.

Hosts D and R1 would not receive the ARP request if they are on different network segments or outside the broadcast domain where Host A is located. Thus, the correct interpretation is that the ARP request reaches all devices in the broadcast domain, specifically Host B and Host C in this context, while excluding others not part of that domain.

Therefore, the correct answer highlights the fact that Hosts B and C, which are able to receive broadcast transmissions from Host A, will indeed see