Which statement about deadlines is true?

• A. A soft deadline is non-negotiable.
• B. A hard deadline may be violated if the network is congested.
• C. A hard deadline must be met; a soft deadline allows some tolerance.
• D. Deadlines are unrelated to retransmission.

Answer: (C)

Deadlines in this context come in two flavors: hard and soft. A hard deadline is a strict time limit; if the data isn’t delivered by that moment, the delivery is considered a failure with no allowance for lateness. A soft deadline, on the other hand, allows some tolerance—late data may still be usable, albeit with degraded usefulness or quality. This is why the statement that a hard deadline must be met and a soft deadline allows some tolerance is the correct one.

Stating that a soft deadline is non-negotiable contradicts what “soft” means. Claiming a hard deadline may be violated if the network is congested ignores the strict nature of hard deadlines. And deadlines are connected to retransmission choices—timing constraints influence whether to retry, drop, or take alternative actions rather than waiting indefinitely.