An architect is working on a Universal Containers (UC) project, and due to security concerns,...

The correct selection is C. A Metadata API deployment is driven by package.xml, which is a machine-readable manifest of the components to retrieve or deploy. Giving release management the manifest creates a reproducible handoff without granting the architect production access or relying on manual spreadsheets and audit logs. From a deployment perspective, the same release should be reproducible across environments, with dependencies, metadata/data differences, API behavior, and target-org constraints identified before production. Automation is valuable because it turns deployment knowledge into a controlled process rather than relying on memory or manual reconstruction. The rejected alternatives do not meet the deployment requirement because they introduce drift, ignore target-org compatibility, or substitute a convenience tool for a reproducible release artifact. For this scenario, the decisive point is therefore the platform behavior represented by the selected option (C. Create a change set in each sandbox and download the package.xml file for the release management team.). Applying that rule consistently keeps the implementation aligned with Salesforce-supported lifecycle practices and makes the resulting change easier to review, validate, and operate across environments.

Study Guide reference: Deploying — Metadata API and Tooling API; deployment validation; package/change-set deployment; data migration; dependency management.