Which component is responsible for scheduling pods onto nodes?

Correct answer: kube-scheduler

Option D is correct because kube-scheduler is the dedicated control-plane component that watches for newly created pods with no assigned node and selects the best node for them based on resource availability, constraints, affinity rules, and policies. Option A, kubelet, runs on each worker node and ensures containers described in PodSpecs are running, but it does not decide which node a pod goes to. Option B, kube-controller-manager, runs control loops such as the ReplicaSet and Deployment controllers, but it does not perform the scheduling decision. Option C, etcd, is the distributed key-value store that holds cluster state and is not involved in scheduling logic.