How does replication.factor influence fault tolerance and load in a Kafka cluster?

• A. Lower replication factor increases fault tolerance.
• B. Replication factor determines the number of consumer groups.
• C. Higher replication factor increases fault tolerance and read resilience but uses more storage and network; it affects the number of in-sync replicas and required durabilities.
• D. Replication factor has no impact on read performance.

Answer: (C)