The API consumer creates an API client which sends API invocations to an API such that they are processed by an API implementation This is based on below definitions API client * An application component * that accesses a service * by invoking an API of that service - by definition of the term API over HTTP API consumer * A business role, which is often assigned to an individual * that develops API clients, i.e., performs the activities necessary for enabling an API client to invoke APIs API implementation * An application component * that implements the functionality

* Scatter-Gather is used for parallel processing, to improve performance. In this scenario, input files are coming from different vendors so mostly at different times. Goal here is to minimize the impact of future change. So scatter Gather is not the correct choice.
* If we use 1 API to receive all files from different Vendors, any new vendor addition will need changes to that 1 API to accommodate new requirements. So Option A and C are also ruled out.
* Correct answer is Create an API that receives the file and invokes a Process API with the data contained in the file, then have the Process API process the data using a MuleSoft Batch Job and other System APIs as needed. Answer to this question lies in the API led connectivity approach.
* API-led connectivity is a methodical way to connect data to applications through a series of reusable and purposeful modern APIs that are each developed to play a specific role - unlock data from systems, compose data into processes, or deliver an experience. System API : System API tier, which provides consistent, managed, and secure access to backend systems. Process APIs : Process APIs take core assets and combines them with some business logic to create a higher level of value. Experience APIs : These are designed specifically for consumption by a specific end-user app or device.
So in case of any future plans , organization can only add experience API on addition of new Vendors, which reuse the already existing process API. It will keep impact minimal.

* Sharing Mule applications as templates is a great way to share your work with other people who are in your organization in Anypoint Platform. When they need to build a similar application they can create the mule application using the template project from Anypoint studio.
* Anypoint Templates are designed to make it easier and faster to go from a blank canvas to a production application. They're bit for bit Mule applications requiring only Anypoint Studio to build and design, and are deployable both on-premises and in the cloud.
* Anypoint Templates are based on five common data Integration patterns and can be customized and extended to fit your integration needs. So even if your use case involves different endpoints or connectors than those included in the template, they still offer a great starting point.
Some of the best practices while creating the template project: - Define the common error handler as part of template project, either using pom dependency or mule config file - Define common logger/audit framework as part of the template project - Define the env specific properties and secure properties file as per the requirement - Define global.xml for global configuration - Define the config file for connector configuration like Http,Salesforce,File,FTP etc - Create separate folders to create DWL,Properties,SSL certificates etc - Add the dependency and configure the pom.xml as per the business need - Configure the mule-artifact.json as per the business need

Correct answer is "Compile, package, unit test, validate unit test coverage, deploy" : Anypoint Platform supports continuous integration and continuous delivery using industry standard tools Mule Maven Plugin The Mule Maven plugin can automate building, packaging and deployment of Mule applications from source projects Using the Mule Maven plugin, you can automate your Mule application deployment to CloudHub, to Anypoint Runtime Fabric, or on-premises, using any of the following deployment strategies * CloudHub deployment * Runtime Fabric deployment * Runtime Manager REST API deployment * Runtime Manager agent deployment MUnit Maven Plugin The MUnit Maven plugin can automate test execution, and ties in with the Mule Maven plugin. It provides a full suite of integration and unit test capabilities, and is fully integrated with Maven and Surefire for integration with your continuous deployment environment. Since MUnit 2.x, the coverage report goal is integrated with the maven reporting section. Coverage Reports are generated during Maven's site lifecycle, during the coverage-report goal. One of the features of MUnit Coverage is to fail the build if a certain coverage level is not reached. MUnit is not used for integration testing Also publishing to Anypoint Exchange or to create associated API instances in API Manager is not a part of CICD pipeline which can ne achieved using mulesoft provided maven plugin Architecture mentioned in the question can be diagrammatically put as below. Persistent Object Store is the correct answer .
* Mule Object Stores: An object store is a facility for storing objects in or across Mule applications. Mule uses object stores to persist data for eventual retrieval.
Mule provides two types of object stores:
1) In-memory store - stores objects in local Mule runtime memory. Objects are lost on shutdown of the Mule runtime. So we cant use in memory store in our scenario as we want to share watermark within all cloudhub workers
2) Persistent store - Mule persists data when an object store is explicitly configured to be persistent. Hence this watermark will be available even any of the worker goes down