In a Maven project, where should plugin configurations be placed?

• A. Parent POM
• B. BOM (Bill of Materials)
• C. Child POM
• D. Settings.xml

Answer: (A)

Placing plugin configurations in the parent POM centralizes the setup so every module in the project inherits the same plugin versions and options. This keeps builds consistent across multiple modules, reduces duplication, and makes it easy to upgrade plugins in one place. If you configure a plugin in the parent, child modules automatically apply those settings unless you override them locally.

BOM is about dependency management (versions for dependencies), not plugins. Settings.xml stores user-specific or machine-wide settings (like repositories and proxies), not project-wide plugin configurations. A child POM can override or supplement parent settings, but the central, scalable approach for a multi-module build is to configure plugins in the parent POM.