Which of the following is a characteristic of system software?

System software is essential for enabling the interaction between the computer’s hardware and the application software that the user performs tasks with. It includes components such as the operating system, device drivers, and system utilities that manage and coordinate the resources of the computer.

One of the primary roles of system software is to serve as a bridge between the hardware and user applications. This means that it translates user commands into machine language that the hardware can understand and respond to. This interaction is crucial because it allows applications to utilize the underlying hardware without needing to know the specific details of how that hardware operates.

Other options represent characteristics more associated with application software or non-technical processes. For instance, software designed for specific tasks is typically categorized as application software rather than system software, which is broader in scope. While user intervention may be necessary for certain functions of some system software, it does not define its core role or purpose. Lastly, productivity tasks are generally the domain of application software, which focuses on end-user tasks such as word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations.