Which benefit does UDP offer compared to TCP?

UDP, or User Datagram Protocol, is designed for scenarios where speed is critical and the overhead of ensuring reliability is less important. Unlike TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), which guarantees that all packets are delivered in order and without errors, UDP focuses on lower latency by eliminating these reliability features. This allows for faster data transmission because there are fewer checks and balances involved in sending the data.

For example, applications like live video streaming or online gaming prefer UDP because timely delivery of data is more critical than ensuring that every single packet arrives without error. In these cases, if a packet is lost, it may be more beneficial to continue sending new data rather than stopping to retransmit lost packets, as doing so would slow down the overall experience.

While factors like higher reliability, connection-oriented communication, and data integrity checks are attributes of TCP, they do not pertain to UDP's advantages. Instead, UDP sacrifices these features for speed, making it the preferred choice for applications requiring low-latency communication.