How do TCP and UDP differ in how they provide delivery reliability?
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Correct answer: TCP provides flow control to avoid overwhelming a receiver; UDP sends packets without flow control or delivery checking.
Why this is the answer
TCP is a connection-oriented protocol that ensures reliable data delivery through mechanisms like acknowledgements, retransmissions, sequencing, and flow control. Flow control prevents a fast sender from overwhelming a slower receiver by managing the rate of data transmission. UDP, in contrast, is a connectionless protocol that offers best-effort delivery without guarantees. It sends data without establishing a connection, performing error checking, or implementing flow control, making it faster but less reliable. The other options are incorrect because TCP does guarantee delivery and error checking, UDP does not provide acknowledgements or retransmissions, TCP is connection-oriented and reliable, and UDP does not establish a three-way handshake for reliable transfer (that's TCP).
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