A major drawback of maintaining separate desktop and mobile sites is what?

• A. Increased development and testing time
• B. Instant updates across devices
• C. No impact on maintenance
• D. Reduced code reuse

Answer: (A)

When you maintain separate desktop and mobile sites, you’re effectively juggling two codebases and two sets of UI patterns. Any change—content, features, or fixes—has to be implemented in both versions, and you must verify that everything works across a range of devices, screen sizes, and browsers. That duplication multiplies the time spent on development and, crucially, on testing to ensure parity between the two sites. The result is higher upkeep costs and slower delivery, which is the core downside of a two-site approach.

Other options don’t fit because instant updates across devices would be easier to achieve with a single, unified site and shared code; no impact on maintenance is simply incorrect given the duplicated effort; and while reduced code reuse is a real consequence of two separate sites, the most significant and universal drawback is the increased development and testing time.