What are HDDs vs. SSDs?

• A. HDDs are solid-state drives with fast latency.
• B. HDDs are spinning disks; SSDs are solid-state offering lower latency and higher IOPS.
• C. SSDs use magnetic tape.
• D. HDDs and SSDs have identical performance.

Answer: (B)

The key idea is understanding how the two types of drives store data and how that affects speed. HDDs use spinning magnetic platters with mechanical read/write heads. Because of those moving parts, finding data means the drive must move the heads to the correct location and wait for the platter to rotate to the right position, which adds latency and limits how many operations the drive can handle at once (low IOPS). SSDs, on the other hand, use flash memory with no moving parts. Data can be read or written almost instantly, so they deliver much lower latency and far higher IOPS, especially for random access patterns.

That’s why the correct statement is that HDDs are spinning disks and SSDs are solid-state drives that offer lower latency and higher IOPS. The other options mix up the technology or misstate the capabilities: HDDs aren’t solid-state, SSDs don’t use magnetic tape, and their performance is not identical—the performance gap, especially for random access and latency, is quite significant.