Which bounce type is temporary and usually resolved?

• A. Hard bounce
• B. Soft bounce is permanent
• C. A bounce caused by an invalid domain
• D. Soft bounce

Answer: (D)

Soft bounce describes a temporary delivery failure. It happens when there’s a temporary condition on the recipient’s end, such as a full mailbox, the destination server being momentarily unavailable, or the message being too large. Because these issues are not permanent, mail servers retry after a while and delivery is often successful on a subsequent attempt. That’s why this type of bounce is usually resolved without removing the recipient from your list. In contrast, a hard bounce is a permanent failure—like an invalid or non-existent domain—so those addresses are typically removed after the bounce. The option about a bounce caused by an invalid domain aligns with a hard bounce, not a soft one, and the idea that a soft bounce is permanent contradicts its very definition. Therefore, the temporary, usually-resolved bounce type is soft bounce.