Which statement about UDP is true?

• A. Connection-oriented and reliable
• B. Connectionless but unreliable
• C. Connectionless and faster but less reliable
• D. Always encrypted

Answer: (C)

UDP is a transport protocol that operates without establishing a connection and without guaranteeing delivery. It sends data with minimal overhead, so it can be faster because there’s no handshake, no acknowledgments, and no built-in retransmission. But this speed comes at the cost of reliability: packets can be lost, arrive out of order, or be duplicated, and there’s no automatic recovery.

That’s why the best statement is that UDP is connectionless and faster but less reliable. It captures the trade-off: lightweight, quick transmission, but no guarantees. The other ideas don’t fit because a connection-oriented, reliable protocol describes TCP, UDP does not provide inherent encryption, and while UDP isn’t reliable, the most complete description emphasizes its speed advantage alongside its unreliability.