Which of the following is a type of data file allowed in the Bulk API?

The Bulk API in Salesforce is designed to handle large volumes of data effectively and allows for specific types of data file formats. The correct answer, CSV (Comma-Separated Values), is the standard format for data file uploads when using the Bulk API. CSV files offer a straightforward way to represent structured data in a text format that is easy for the API to parse and process.

CSV is particularly advantageous for data manipulation as it can conveniently represent tabular data with fields separated by commas, allowing for efficient bulk operations like insertions, updates, and deletions. The structure of CSV files is simple, being easy to generate and manage, which fits well within the Bulk API’s design for scalability and performance.

Other formats such as PDF and JPEG are typically used for documents and images and are not suited for structured data uploads. Text files, while they may contain data, do not adhere to the structured format expected by the Bulk API, which specifically requires delimited data that can be easily interpreted as rows and columns. This is why CSV is the preferred and supported format for Bulk API operations.