Which scenario is most likely to cause a hold time violation?
Hold time requires data to remain stable for a minimum time after the clock edge. If the combinational path between flip-flops is too short, new data arrives too quickly and disturbs the just-captured value.
Hold violations are independent of clock frequency — they are a function of path delay only. They are fixed by adding buffers (delay cells) to the short path, not by slowing the clock.
