What part of a program allows a set of instructions to be repeated a specific number of times?

The correct answer is a loop. A loop in programming is specifically designed to execute a set of instructions repeatedly until a certain condition is met or a specific number of iterations is completed. This mechanism is essential for tasks that require repetitive actions, such as processing items in a list or performing calculations multiple times.

For instance, a common type of loop is a "for loop," which allows the programmer to define how many times to run the code inside it. This makes loops very powerful and useful for various applications within software development, enabling efficient code management and execution.

In contrast, a function is a block of code that can be called to perform a specific task, but it does not inherently control repetition. A conditional statement, on the other hand, evaluates whether a certain condition is true or false to direct the flow of the program, but it does not operate on iteration. Lastly, an array is a data structure used to store multiple values but does not handle instruction repetition itself.