I've seen some controversy on this question while doing a brief search. For example, this SE answer quotes Wikipedia and says that the RDS is the step with the largest $E_a$. However, this UC Davis page says that
In the potential energy profile, the rate-determining step is the reaction step with the highest energy of transition state.
My textbooks don't explicitly mention whether the RDS is the step with the largest $E_a$ or the step with the highest energy transition state. When I was doing a past exam, one of the questions was on this topic, and the correct answer assumed that the RDS is the step with the highest energy transition state. However, I've always thought that the RDS is the slowest step, and the slowest step has the highest $E_a$. So which viewpoint is actually correct?
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