. . . . . . . . is the universal coding scheme for characters.

ASCII
Unicode
Binary
EBCDIC

The correct answer is: B. Unicode

ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) is an 8-bit character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text. Most modern character-encoding schemes are based on ASCII, although they support many more characters.

Unicode is a character encoding standard that supports any character in any language. It is a superset of ASCII, which means that it includes all of the characters in ASCII. Unicode is used in many different applications, including web browsers, operating systems, and programming languages.

Binary is a base-2 numeral system. It is the most common numeral system used in computing. In binary, each digit can be either 0 or 1. Binary numbers are used to represent data in computers.

EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code) is an 8-bit character encoding standard developed by IBM. It is used in IBM mainframe computers and some other systems. EBCDIC is not as widely used as ASCII or Unicode.

In conclusion, the universal coding scheme for characters is Unicode. It is a superset of ASCII, which means that it includes all of the characters in ASCII. Unicode is used in many different applications, including web browsers, operating systems, and programming languages.