220-1101 Practice Test 35 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company uses a public cloud IaaS provider to host a web application. The application experiences occasional spikes in traffic. The cloud provider offers a service that automatically adds or removes virtual machine instances based on CPU utilization. This is an example of which cloud characteristic?

Accepted Answer

Rapid elasticity. The scenario describes a cloud service that automatically scales virtual machine instances up or down in response to CPU utilization spikes. This ability to provision and release resources quickly and automatically to match demand is the defining characteristic of rapid elasticity, which allows resources to appear unlimited to the consumer and scale elastically based on workload.

Answer

Measured service

Answer

On-demand self-service

Answer

Resource pooling

Question 2

A company hosts a web application on a single virtual machine in a public cloud IaaS environment. The application experiences intermittent slowdowns. The administrator checks the VM's performance metrics and notices that CPU and memory usage are low, but disk I/O latency spikes during the slowdowns. The cloud provider uses a shared storage system with multiple tenants. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

Storage performance variability due to the noisy neighbor effect. The correct answer is B because the scenario describes a shared storage system with multiple tenants, and the symptoms (low CPU/memory but high disk I/O latency spikes) point directly to the 'noisy neighbor' effect. In a multi-tenant IaaS environment, one tenant's heavy storage workload can saturate the shared storage controller or network, causing unpredictable latency for other tenants. This matches the intermittent slowdowns without local resource exhaustion.

Answer

VM throttling due to burstable CPU

Answer

Insufficient virtual RAM allocation

Answer

Network bandwidth contention

Question 3

A company uses a public cloud IaaS provider. They have a virtual machine that runs a legacy application requiring a static IP address. The VM needs to be migrated to a different physical host within the same datacenter due to scheduled maintenance. The application cannot tolerate more than a few seconds of downtime. Which feature should the cloud administrator use?

Accepted Answer

Live migration. Live migration (B) is correct because it allows a running virtual machine to be moved between physical hosts with virtually no downtime, typically under a second. This meets the requirement of a static IP address (the VM's network identity is preserved) and the sub-second tolerance for downtime during scheduled maintenance.

Answer

Auto-scaling

Answer

Snapshot and restore

Answer

High availability

Question 4

A company uses a cloud service that provides virtual machines. The company administrators have full control over the guest operating systems, install their own applications, and manage security patches and updates. The cloud provider is responsible for the underlying physical servers, storage, and networking. This scenario best describes which cloud service model?

Accepted Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). This scenario describes Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) because the company has full control over the guest operating systems, applications, and security patches, while the cloud provider manages the underlying physical infrastructure (servers, storage, networking). In IaaS, the provider delivers virtualized computing resources over the internet, and the customer retains administrative access to the OS and installed software, which matches the description exactly.

Answer

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Answer

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Answer

Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Question 5

A company wants to migrate its custom web application to the cloud. The development team needs full administrative access to the operating system, the ability to install custom middleware, and control over security configurations. They want to avoid managing the physical servers, hypervisors, and data center infrastructure. Which cloud service model should the company choose?

Accepted Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides virtualized computing resources over the internet, giving the development team full administrative access to the operating system, the ability to install custom middleware, and control over security configurations. The cloud provider manages the physical servers, hypervisors, and data center infrastructure, while the customer retains control over the OS, storage, and deployed applications. This matches the requirement for full OS-level access without managing the underlying hardware.

Answer

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Answer

Software as a Service (SaaS)

Answer

Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Question 6

A company runs its e-commerce platform on a private cloud but expects a large traffic spike during a promotional event. They want to automatically add additional virtual servers from a public cloud provider during the peak and release them afterward. Which cloud computing characteristic best describes this capability?

Accepted Answer

Elasticity. Elasticity is the cloud computing characteristic that allows resources to be automatically scaled up or down based on demand. In this scenario, the company uses a hybrid cloud model where additional virtual servers from a public cloud provider are provisioned during a traffic spike and released afterward, which is the definition of elasticity. This contrasts with scalability, which is the ability to handle growth over time, as elasticity specifically addresses dynamic, automated scaling to match fluctuating workloads.

Answer

High availability

Answer

Fault tolerance

Answer

Resource pooling

Question 7

A company hosts a virtualized application on a public cloud. The application uses a persistent block storage volume for its database. The IT team needs to move the virtual machine to a different availability zone to improve disaster recovery. Which of the following cloud characteristics allows the team to detach the block storage volume from the current VM and attach it to a new VM in the target availability zone without data loss?

Accepted Answer

Persistent block storage. Persistent block storage, such as Amazon EBS or similar services, is designed to be detached from one virtual machine and reattached to another without data loss because the storage volume exists independently of the VM's lifecycle. This allows the IT team to move the volume to a new VM in a different availability zone while preserving the database contents, as the data persists on the block device itself rather than being tied to the VM's ephemeral storage.

Answer

Elasticity

Answer

High availability

Answer

Resource pooling

Question 8

A company runs a web application on a virtual machine (VM) in a public cloud IaaS environment. The application experiences unpredictable traffic spikes throughout the day, sometimes lasting 30 minutes. The company wants to ensure consistent performance during spikes while minimizing costs. The current single VM (4 vCPUs, 8 GB RAM) is sufficient for normal load but becomes slow during spikes. Which cloud characteristic should the administrator implement to address this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Elasticity. Elasticity is the correct answer because it allows the cloud infrastructure to automatically scale resources up during traffic spikes and scale down when demand decreases, ensuring consistent performance while minimizing costs. In an IaaS environment, this is typically achieved through auto-scaling groups that add or remove VM instances based on metrics like CPU utilization or request count, matching the unpredictable, short-duration spikes described.

Answer

High availability

Answer

Load balancing

Answer

Fault tolerance

Question 9

A company runs an e-commerce website on a public cloud IaaS platform. During a flash sale, traffic spikes to 10 times the normal volume. The website automatically scales its resources to handle the increased load and returns to normal capacity after the sale, with no manual intervention required. Which cloud computing characteristic does this scenario BEST demonstrate?

Accepted Answer

Elasticity. Elasticity is the cloud characteristic that allows resources to automatically scale up during demand spikes and scale down when demand subsides, without manual intervention. In this scenario, the IaaS platform dynamically provisions additional compute and network resources to handle 10x traffic during the flash sale, then releases them afterward, which is the defining behavior of elasticity.

Answer

High availability

Answer

Fault tolerance

Answer

Scalability

Question 10

A technician is troubleshooting a desktop computer that powers on but the monitor displays 'No Signal.' The PC fans spin and the power LED is on. The technician has already reseated the graphics card and tried a different monitor and cable. The motherboard has integrated graphics, but the CPU does not support integrated graphics. The technician checks and finds that the graphics card's power connectors are not all plugged in. The card requires both a 6-pin and an 8-pin PCIe power connector, but only the 6-pin is connected. Which of the following should the technician do NEXT?

Accepted Answer

Connect the 8-pin PCIe power connector from the PSU to the graphics card. The correct next step is to connect the 8-pin PCIe power connector because the graphics card requires both a 6-pin and an 8-pin connector to deliver sufficient power for operation. Without the 8-pin connector, the card may not initialize properly, causing the 'No Signal' issue despite the system appearing to power on. Since the technician has already verified the monitor and cable, and reseated the card, the missing power connection is the most likely root cause.

Answer

Replace the graphics card with a known-good unit

Answer

Remove the graphics card and use the motherboard's integrated graphics

Answer

Update the graphics card driver from the motherboard manufacturer's website

Question 11

A company hosts a critical application on two virtual machines located in different availability zones within the same cloud region. Both VMs are active and running simultaneously. The application is designed such that if one VM fails, the other continues serving traffic without any downtime. Which cloud concept does this configuration BEST demonstrate?

Accepted Answer

Fault tolerance. This configuration demonstrates fault tolerance because the application is designed to continue operating without interruption when one VM fails. By running two active VMs in different availability zones within the same region, the system eliminates a single point of failure and ensures zero downtime during a component failure, which is the defining characteristic of fault tolerance.

Answer

Elasticity

Answer

Load balancing

Answer

Auto-scaling

Question 12

A company runs an online retail platform that experiences unpredictable traffic surges during holiday sales events. The cloud architecture must automatically scale resources up within minutes to handle the load and then scale down when traffic subsides to avoid unnecessary costs. Which characteristic of cloud computing is being utilized?

Accepted Answer

Rapid elasticity. Rapid elasticity is the cloud characteristic that enables resources to automatically scale up or down in response to demand. In this scenario, the platform needs to handle unpredictable traffic surges within minutes and then scale down to avoid costs, which directly matches the definition of rapid elasticity. This is distinct from on-demand self-service, which focuses on provisioning resources without human interaction, not on automatic scaling.

Answer

On-demand self-service

Answer

Broad network access

Answer

Measured service

Question 13

A cloud service provider uses a Type 1 hypervisor to host multiple tenant virtual machines on a single physical server. This allows the provider to serve many customers from the same infrastructure while maintaining isolation. Which essential characteristic of cloud computing does this best represent?

Accepted Answer

Resource pooling. Resource pooling is the correct answer because a Type 1 hypervisor (bare-metal hypervisor) abstracts the physical server's CPU, memory, and storage into a shared resource pool that can be dynamically allocated to multiple tenant VMs. This allows the provider to serve many customers from the same physical infrastructure while maintaining logical isolation, which is the defining characteristic of resource pooling in cloud computing.

Answer

Rapid elasticity

Answer

Measured service

Answer

Broad network access

Question 14

A company hosts its customer relationship management (CRM) application on a single virtual machine (VM) in a public cloud. The VM is configured with a static private IP address that is used by a third-party service to send data to the application. During a scheduled hardware maintenance event, the cloud provider automatically migrates the VM to a different physical host. After the migration, the CRM application can no longer receive data from the third-party service. Which of the following cloud computing concepts was MOST likely not properly implemented?

Accepted Answer

High availability. The correct answer is B. High availability. The VM was migrated to a different physical host during maintenance, which is a normal high-availability operation. However, the static private IP address was not preserved or re-mapped after migration, causing the third-party service to lose connectivity. Proper high-availability implementation requires that the VM's IP address (or a floating IP) remains reachable after failover or migration, typically through mechanisms like virtual IPs, DNS updates, or cloud provider's elastic IP services.

Answer

Elasticity

Answer

Scalability

Answer

Resource pooling

Question 15

A company runs a private cloud for its internal applications. During peak business hours, the IT team notices that some virtual machines (VMs) become slow due to high CPU and memory demand. The team wants the cloud infrastructure to automatically increase resources to the VMs when demand spikes and reduce them when demand drops, without manual intervention. Which cloud computing characteristic BEST describes this capability?

Accepted Answer

Rapid elasticity. Rapid elasticity is the cloud characteristic that enables automatic, seamless scaling of resources (such as CPU and memory) up or down in response to demand spikes or drops, without manual intervention. In this scenario, the private cloud infrastructure must dynamically allocate additional compute capacity to VMs during peak hours and reduce it when demand subsides, which is the precise definition of rapid elasticity. This is typically implemented through orchestration tools like VMware vSphere DRS or OpenStack Heat, which monitor utilization metrics and trigger scaling actions via APIs.

Answer

Resource pooling

Answer

Measured service

Answer

On-demand self-service