How does a load balancer decide which backend server should handle an incoming request?

A It always sends the request to the server with the lowest IP address B It encrypts the request and forwards it to a randomly chosen data center C It applies an algorithm such as round-robin, least-connections, or weighted/IP-hash, often combined with health checks that remove unhealthy servers from rotation D It waits for every server to respond and forwards the request to whichever replies first