Does iPad 9th Generation have a USB-C port?

I’ve been given a USB drive that has a USB-A end and a USB-C end. Will this work to transfer photos from a Windows laptop to a 9th Generation iPad? I’ve go the photos off the Windows laptop into this drive. Will that drive fit into the iPad’s Lighting port?

I’ve not been able to determine whether the iPad 9th Gen even has a USB-C port.

No, it has a Lightning port. The diagrams in the specs show that and the sheet also mentions that it ships with a USB-C to Lightning cable.

You probably want to take a look at this.

The adapter you’d require is this one.

There’s a cheaper model, but IIRC it doesn’t deliver power so it cannot power an external drive.