A Kubernetes Service routes traffic to a dynamic set of backends (usually Pods). The set of backend IPs and ports is represented by endpoint-tracking resources. Historically this was the Endpoints object; today Kubernetes commonly uses EndpointSlice for scalability, but the concept remains the same: endpoints represent the concrete network destinations behind a Service. That’s why D is correct: a Service endpoint is an object that contains the IP addresses (and ports) of the individual Pods (or other backends) associated with that Service.
When a Service has a selector, Kubernetes automatically maintains endpoints by watching which Pods match the selector and are Ready, then publishing those Pod IPs into Endpoints/EndpointSlices. Consumers don’t usually use endpoints directly; instead they call the Service DNS name, and kube-proxy (or an alternate dataplane) forwards traffic to one of the endpoints. Still, endpoints are critical because they are what make Service routing accurate and up to date during scaling events, rolling updates, and failures.
Option A confuses this with the Kubernetes API server endpoint (the cluster API URL). Option B is incorrect; there’s no special “Service Endpoint Pod.” Option C describes an external/public IP concept, which may exist for LoadBalancer Services, but “Service endpoint” in Kubernetes vocabulary is about the backend destinations, not the public entrypoint.
Operationally, endpoints are useful for debugging: if a Service isn’t routing traffic, checking Endpoints/EndpointSlices shows whether the Service actually has backends and whether readiness is excluding Pods. This ties directly into Kubernetes service discovery and load balancing: the Service is the stable front door; endpoints are the actual backends.
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