What is the primary purpose of the ‘defer’ attribute when loading an external JavaScript file?

Question

Web Development — Medium

What is the primary purpose of the ‘defer’ attribute when loading an external JavaScript file?

Accepted Answer

The 'defer' attribute instructs the browser to download the script in the background without blocking HTML parsing and to execute it only after the document has been fully parsed. This ensures that the script has access to the entire DOM. Option C is a benefit, but B describes the specific execution timing. Option D describes 'async', which does not guarantee execution order.