In an IoT process, where is programming typically required for the system to be Internet of Things?

• A. Soil sensor to microcontroller to the Cloud to microcontroller to fertilising mechanism
• B. Soil sensor and Cloud and fertilising mechanism
• C. Microcontroller and Cloud
• D. Soil sensor and Microcontroller

Answer: (C)

In an IoT setup, you need programming at the edge and in the cloud. The microcontroller serves as the edge device: it runs firmware that reads the soil sensor, uses that data to drive the fertilising mechanism if needed, and handles the network communication to send measurements to the cloud. The cloud hosts applications for data storage, analysis, dashboards, and orchestration, and it can send commands back to the edge. This edge-plus-cloud pairing creates the full internet-enabled data loop that defines IoT.

Without an edge device to read sensors and control actuators, you lack a real data source and a way to act on it. Without the cloud, you miss scalable storage, processing, and remote control. A setup that only includes a sensor or only a cloud without an edge gateway doesn’t establish the end-to-end, programmable IoT system.