Which component of the OTel Collector is responsible for receiving telemetry data from instrumented applications?

Question

Options

• AExporters
• BReceivers
• CProcessors
• DAgents

• A
  6% (4)
• B
  90% (61)
• C
  1% (1)
• D
  3% (2)

Explanation

Receivers are the entry point of the OTel Collector pipeline - they listen for and accept telemetry data (traces, metrics, logs) from instrumented applications or other sources, supporting protocols like OTLP, Jaeger, Prometheus, and more.

• A (Exporters) are wrong because they handle the outbound side: sending processed telemetry to backends like Jaeger, Prometheus, or Datadog.
• C (Processors) are wrong because they sit between receivers and exporters, transforming, filtering, or batching data in transit - they don't ingest it.
• D (Agents) are not a named component of the Collector pipeline at all; "agent" is a deployment pattern (running the Collector as a sidecar/daemon), not a pipeline stage.

Memory tip: Think of the pipeline as a factory assembly line - Receivers Receive raw materials (data in), Processors refine them, and Exporters ship them out. "R for Receive, R for Raw input."

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