The correct option is kube-proxy.

kube-proxy is the node component that watches Services and Endpoints and programs the node level networking rules so that service IPs and ports are routed to the appropriate pod backends. It implements those rules using iptables or IPVS on the node which ensures that traffic addressed to a Service is forwarded to the correct pod across the node.

Cloud Load Balancing is incorrect because it refers to an external or cloud provider load balancer and not the Kubernetes node process that programs local service routing rules.

CNI plugins are incorrect for this specific question because they install pod network interfaces and take care of pod IP addressing and connectivity. They do help enable pod to pod communication but they do not manage the Service proxy rules on the node that kube-proxy programs.

kubelet is incorrect because it manages the pod and container lifecycle on the node and reports status to the control plane. It does not configure the node level service routing rules that kube-proxy applies.

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