Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science

Disable ads (and more) with a membership for a one time $2.99 payment

Prepare for the AP Computer Science Exam. Study with flashcards and multiple choice questions, each question has hints and explanations. Get ready for your exam!

Each practice test/flash card set has 50 randomly selected questions from a bank of over 500. You'll get a new set of questions each time!

Practice this question and more.

HTTP is primarily used for what purpose?

Sending emails
Sending and receiving web pages
Transmitting data securely
Managing network connections

The correct answer is: Sending and receiving web pages

The correct answer is indeed that HTTP is primarily used for sending and receiving web pages. HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the foundational protocol used on the internet that enables communication between clients (like web browsers) and servers. When a user requests a web page by typing a URL or clicking a link, the browser uses HTTP to send a request to the server where the web page is hosted. The server then responds by sending back the requested HTML document, which the browser renders for viewing. This process is fundamental for delivering content on the World Wide Web and is what allows users to interact with websites. Other options misrepresent the primary function of HTTP. Sending emails is managed by protocols such as SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), secure data transmission is typically handled by protocols like HTTPS (which is HTTP over SSL/TLS for security), and managing network connections often falls under protocols like TCP/IP, which deal with how data is transmitted over a network rather than the specific transfer of web pages and resources.