Which term describes a protocol that does not require the server to retain status information or session details?

• A. Stateful Protocol
• B. Stateless Protocol
• C. Hybrid Protocol
• D. Caching Protocol

Answer: (B)

Statelessness means the protocol treats each request as independent, with the server not keeping any memory of previous interactions or session details. Each request contains all the information needed for it to be processed, so the server doesn’t rely on stored context from earlier exchanges. This design makes servers simpler and easier to scale because there’s no per-client session state to manage. HTTP is a classic example: the protocol itself is stateless, and any session-like behavior is handled by the client presenting necessary tokens or data with each request, rather than the server maintaining ongoing session memory. The other options imply some level of server-side memory of the client’s state (stateful), a mix of approaches (hybrid), or focus on storing responses to speed up access (caching), which does not define the absence of server-side session retention.