To answer this question, the user needs to know what each exception represents and which exceptions are most commonly thrown by API developers or application developers, rather than by the JVM.

A. IllegalStateException: This exception is usually thrown when the state of an object is not as expected. An IllegalStateException is typically thrown by an application or API developer when an object is not in the right state to perform a particular operation.

B. NumberFormatException: This exception is thrown when a program attempts to convert a string to a numeric value, but the string is not a valid number. An application or API developer might throw a NumberFormatException when expecting a string to contain an integer, but the string actually contains letters or other non-numeric characters.

C. IllegalArgumentException: This exception indicates that a method has been passed an illegal or inappropriate argument. An application or API developer might throw an IllegalArgumentException when a parameter passed into a method does not meet the expected criteria.

D. ClassCastException: This exception is thrown when an attempt is made to cast an object to a subclass of which it is not an instance. An application or API developer might throw a ClassCastException when trying to cast an object to a type that it is not compatible with.

Based on these explanations, the exception that is most typically thrown by an API developer or an application developer rather than being thrown by the JVM is C. IllegalArgumentException.

Therefore, the answer is: C. IllegalArgumentException.