Public key encryption/decryption is not preferred because
(a) it is slow
(b) it is hardware/software intensive
(c) it has a high computational load
(d) all of the mentioned
I got this question in an international level competition.
This interesting question is from Public Keys and X.509 Certificates-I topic in portion Message Authentication Codes, Whirlpool Algorithm and Key Management and Distribution of Cryptograph & Network Security