Which three attributes indicate that data may be considered big data?

• A. Variety, Volume, Velocity
• B. Latency, Size, Throughput
• C. Density, Access, Redundancy
• D. Format, Compliance, Security

Answer: (A)

Big data is characterized by the three Vs: volume, velocity, and variety. Volume means data comes in such a large amount that traditional storage and processing tools struggle to handle it. Velocity refers to the speed at which data is generated and needs to be captured, processed, and analyzed to stay useful. Variety covers the different data types and formats—from structured numbers to unstructured text, images, and real-time streams.

In IoT, this shows up clearly: thousands of sensors generate continuous data streams (velocity), across many device types and platforms (variety), all accumulating into massive storage needs (volume). The other options don’t capture this combination of huge scale, rapid generation, and diverse data formats, which are what define big data in practice.