Final answer:
The equality operator in programming is ==, which compares the values of two expressions and returns true or false. It should not be confused with the assignment operator =, which is used to assign a value to a variable.
Step-by-step explanation:
The equality (or comparison) operator is a symbol used in programming languages to compare the values of two expressions. In the context of the question provided, the correct answer is a. ==. This operator checks if the value on the left-hand side is equal to the value on the right-hand side and returns a Boolean value of true or false as a result. For example, if you were to write 3 == 3, this would evaluate to true because both sides are equal. The assignment operator, represented by a single equals sign =, is used to assign a value to a variable and is not the same as the equality operator. As for the other options given, >= is a greater than or equal to comparison operator and != is a not equal comparison operator.