Terraform Associate Exam MCQ

would you answer this multiple choice for me?
Areas of Terraform’s behavior that are not determined by the backend:

  • none
  • where operations are performed
  • both
  • where state is stored

I know the answer is none, but my question is that why its not the second option (where operations are performed) as the operations are performed inside the machines and its irrelevant to the remote backend? how can that be determined by the backend?