Which term describes the rate at which bits are transferred across a medium over a period of time?

• A. Throughput
• B. Bandwidth
• C. Latency
• D. Goodput

Answer: (A)

Throughput is the actual rate at which bits are transferred across a medium over time. It measures how many bits move from one end to the other per second in practice, accounting for overhead, retransmissions, and other inefficiencies. Bandwidth, by contrast, is the maximum capacity the link could carry under ideal conditions; the real-world rate (throughput) is often lower than that maximum. Latency refers to delay, not rate, and goodput refers to the useful payload data delivered per second after removing overhead. So, the rate described in the question—how many bits get transferred per unit time—best matches throughput.