Which data source makes online data consumption easier?

• A. Data mart
• B. Web scraping
• C. Database
• D. Application programming interface

Answer: (D)

Accessing data online becomes easy when the source provides a programmable interface you can call from code. An API offers defined endpoints that return data in machine-friendly formats (like JSON), with clear parameters, authentication, and controls such as pagination and rate limits. This lets apps, dashboards, or data pipelines fetch exactly what they need automatically and reliably, without the fragility of scraping or the complexity of direct database access.

Data marts are designed mainly for internal analytics and BI use, not general online data consumption. Web scraping pulls data by parsing web pages, which is brittle, labor-intensive, and can run into licensing or terms-of-use issues. A database stores data, but external consumption usually requires a separate API or direct queries, which is more cumbersome to implement than using a purpose-built API.