CIW Professional Practice Exam 2025 – Complete Study Resource

The correct answer is that the protocol primarily used for transferring files from a server to a client is FTP, which stands for File Transfer Protocol. FTP is specifically designed for this purpose, allowing users to upload and download files to and from a server efficiently. It supports various file operations and is widely used in web development and management to transfer files.

Other protocols mentioned, while related to internet activity, serve different primary functions. SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is used for sending emails, making it unsuitable for file transfers. HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) is designed for transferring web pages and other resources on the internet, and while it can also be used to transfer files, it is not optimized for this purpose like FTP is. HTTPS (HTTP Secure) is the secure version of HTTP, adding encryption for secure communication but still primarily focused on web page delivery rather than file transfers. Thus, FTP stands out as the primary protocol for file transfer between servers and clients.