220-1101 Practice Exam 56 — 20 Questions

Question 1

A company hosts a critical web application using a public cloud provider. The application is deployed across two separate data centers in different geographic regions. The cloud provider automatically routes traffic to the healthy region in the event of a full data center outage, with no manual intervention. Which cloud computing characteristic does this BEST describe?

Accepted Answer

High availability. High availability (HA) is the cloud characteristic that ensures an application remains accessible despite failures, often through redundancy and automatic failover. In this scenario, the cloud provider's automatic traffic routing to a healthy region during a full data center outage, without manual intervention, directly demonstrates HA by eliminating a single point of failure and maintaining service continuity.

Answer

Elasticity

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Scalability

Answer

Fault tolerance

Question 2

A company hosts its critical application on a public cloud IaaS platform. The IT team has configured replication of data from the primary cloud region to a secondary region. In the event of a disaster that takes down the primary region, the IT team will manually start the virtual machines in the secondary region using the replicated data. The application will then resume service. Which cloud concept does this configuration BEST describe?

Accepted Answer

Disaster recovery. This scenario describes a disaster recovery (DR) configuration because the application relies on a manual failover process to a secondary region after a catastrophic failure of the primary region. The use of replicated data and manual startup of VMs aligns with a cold standby or pilot light DR model, where recovery time is measured in minutes or hours, not seconds. High availability and fault tolerance require automatic, near-instantaneous failover without human intervention, which is not present here.

Answer

High availability

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Fault tolerance

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Elasticity

Question 3

A cloud administrator configures a virtual machine so that it automatically increases its allocated CPU and RAM resources during peak demand and reduces them during low usage periods without any manual intervention. Which cloud computing characteristic does this configuration BEST represent?

Accepted Answer

Elasticity. Elasticity is the cloud characteristic that enables automatic scaling of resources (CPU, RAM) up and down in response to demand, without manual intervention. This configuration specifically matches elasticity because it adjusts resources dynamically during peak and low usage periods, which is distinct from the broader planning capability of scalability.

Answer

Scalability

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Resource pooling

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Metered service

Question 4

A company is migrating its on-premises virtualized infrastructure to a public cloud IaaS provider. The on-premises VMs were configured with static private IP addresses that are hardcoded in legacy applications for licensing and integration purposes. After migration, the legacy applications fail because the IP addresses assigned to the VMs in the cloud are different from the original on-premises addresses. The cloud provider does not allow the customer to keep the same IP addresses without using additional services. Which cloud computing characteristic is MOST directly responsible for the IP address change?

Accepted Answer

Resource pooling. Resource pooling is the cloud characteristic where the provider's compute resources are pooled to serve multiple customers using a multi-tenant model, with physical and virtual resources dynamically assigned and reassigned according to customer demand. This means the customer has no control over the exact underlying IP addressing scheme; the provider assigns IP addresses from its own pool, which are different from the on-premises static IPs. The need for additional services (like VPN or IP address translation) to retain the original IPs is a direct consequence of resource pooling, as the provider cannot guarantee a specific IP address without breaking the shared, abstracted nature of the pool.

Answer

Rapid elasticity

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Measured service

Answer

On-demand self-service

Question 5

A company hosts a critical e-commerce application in a public cloud. The application is deployed across two availability zones in the same region. The cloud provider automatically monitors the health of the application in each zone and, if one zone becomes unavailable, all traffic is directed to the healthy zone without requiring any manual intervention. This setup BEST demonstrates which cloud characteristic?

Accepted Answer

High availability. This setup demonstrates high availability because the application is designed to remain accessible despite the failure of an entire availability zone. The cloud provider's automatic health monitoring and traffic rerouting ensure that if one zone goes down, all traffic is seamlessly directed to the healthy zone without manual intervention, minimizing downtime. This aligns with the core goal of high availability: eliminating single points of failure to maintain service continuity.

Answer

Elasticity

Answer

Scalability

Answer

Resource pooling

Question 6

A company is migrating its on-premises web servers to the cloud. They want to maintain full control over the operating system, web server software, and security configurations, but they do not want to manage the underlying physical hardware, storage, or network infrastructure. Which cloud service model best meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides virtualized computing resources over the internet, allowing the company to deploy and manage their own operating systems, web server software, and security configurations while the cloud provider handles the underlying physical hardware, storage, and network infrastructure. This matches the requirement for full control over the OS and software stack without managing physical components.

Answer

Software as a Service (SaaS)

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Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Answer

Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Question 7

A company is migrating its email server to the cloud. Compliance regulations require that the company's server operating system and data must be isolated from other customers. The company wants dedicated server resources but does not need physical hardware control. Which cloud service model meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Private cloud. A private cloud is the correct choice because it provides dedicated, isolated resources for a single organization, meeting compliance requirements for data and OS isolation without requiring physical hardware control. Unlike public clouds, a private cloud can be hosted on-premises or by a third-party provider, offering dedicated servers and hypervisor-level isolation (e.g., VMware vSphere or Hyper-V) that ensures no other customer shares the same compute or storage infrastructure.

Answer

Public Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

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Community cloud

Answer

Hybrid cloud

Question 8

A company plans to run multiple virtual servers on a single physical host to reduce hardware costs. The IT team wants direct hardware access for each virtual machine to maximize performance and minimize latency. Which of the following is the most appropriate hypervisor type to deploy?

Accepted Answer

Type 1 hypervisor (bare-metal) installed directly on the server hardware.. A Type 1 hypervisor (bare-metal) runs directly on the physical hardware without an underlying operating system, allowing each virtual machine to have direct, low-latency access to CPU, memory, and I/O devices. This architecture minimizes overhead and maximizes performance, making it the ideal choice when the requirement is direct hardware access for each VM.

Answer

Type 2 hypervisor installed on top of a general-purpose operating system.

Answer

Container-based virtualization running on the host OS.

Answer

A virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution.

Question 9

A company uses a private cloud platform to provide development and test environments. Developers frequently need to create new virtual machines (VMs) quickly for various projects. The cloud platform allows developers to provision VMs from pre-configured templates that include the OS and required applications, without any interaction from the IT team. Which cloud computing characteristic does this capability BEST represent?

Accepted Answer

On-demand self-service. The capability described allows developers to provision VMs from pre-configured templates without any IT interaction. This directly aligns with on-demand self-service, a core NIST-defined characteristic of cloud computing where a consumer can unilaterally provision computing resources automatically without requiring human interaction with each service provider.

Answer

Rapid elasticity

Answer

Resource pooling

Answer

Measured service

Question 10

A company operates a private cloud for its internal applications. To handle seasonal traffic spikes, the company wants to automatically offload extra workload to a public cloud provider when the private cloud's utilization reaches 80%. Which of the following cloud concepts BEST describes this setup?

Accepted Answer

Hybrid cloud. The setup combines a private cloud (on-premises) with a public cloud provider to handle traffic spikes, which is the defining characteristic of a hybrid cloud. The automatic offloading of workloads when utilization reaches 80% is a classic example of cloud bursting, a key use case for hybrid cloud architectures. This model allows the company to maintain sensitive workloads on-premises while leveraging public cloud elasticity for peak demand.

Answer

Community cloud

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Virtual Private Cloud

Answer

Software as a Service

Question 11

A company hosts its customer-facing web application on a public cloud IaaS platform. The application runs on multiple virtual machines. The IT team configures the platform to automatically distribute incoming traffic across the healthy VMs and to reroute traffic away from any VM that fails. Which cloud concept does this configuration BEST describe?

Accepted Answer

Load balancing. The configuration described—automatically distributing incoming traffic across healthy VMs and rerouting traffic away from any failed VM—is the definition of load balancing. Load balancers (e.g., HAProxy, AWS ELB, NLB) use health checks (e.g., HTTP 200, TCP SYN) to monitor VM status and remove unhealthy nodes from the pool, ensuring traffic is only sent to responsive instances. This directly matches the scenario of distributing traffic and rerouting on failure.

Answer

Auto-scaling

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High availability

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Elasticity

Question 12

A company runs a private cloud infrastructure for its internal applications. During seasonal sales events, demand for computing resources doubles. The IT team wants to automatically expand the private cloud by utilizing a public cloud provider during these peak periods, and then scale back when demand normalizes. Which cloud computing concept does this scenario BEST describe?

Accepted Answer

Elasticity. This scenario describes elasticity, which is the ability of a cloud system to dynamically scale resources up or down based on demand. The private cloud automatically expands into a public cloud (cloud bursting) during peak periods and scales back when demand normalizes, matching the definition of elasticity.

Answer

High availability

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Load balancing

Answer

Disaster recovery

Question 13

A company uses a public cloud IaaS provider. They are billed monthly based on the total hours their virtual machines are running and the amount of block storage allocated. Which cloud computing characteristic does this billing model represent?

Accepted Answer

Metered service. The billing model described—charging based on total hours VMs are running and the amount of block storage allocated—directly corresponds to metered service. In cloud computing, metered service (also called pay-per-use or measured service) means the provider tracks resource consumption (e.g., compute hours, storage GB-months) and bills accordingly. This is a core characteristic of cloud computing as defined by NIST SP 800-145, enabling usage-based cost allocation.

Answer

Rapid elasticity

Answer

On-demand self-service

Answer

Resource pooling

Question 14

A company wants to migrate its on-premises email server to the cloud. The IT director insists that the new solution require no management of the underlying operating system, application server, or patching. Which cloud service model should the organization choose?

Accepted Answer

Software as a Service (SaaS). Software as a Service (SaaS) provides a fully managed application delivered over the internet. The provider handles all underlying infrastructure, operating system, application server, and patching, meeting the IT director's requirement for zero management of those layers. In this scenario, the email service is consumed as a ready-to-use application, such as Microsoft 365 Exchange Online or Google Workspace.

Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Answer

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Answer

Desktop as a Service (DaaS)

Question 15

A company wants to migrate its on-premises email system to the cloud. The IT team wants to avoid managing the underlying server hardware and email software, but they require the ability to configure custom email policies, create user accounts, and manage distribution groups. Which cloud service model best meets these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Software as a Service (SaaS). Software as a Service (SaaS) delivers a fully managed email application (e.g., Microsoft 365 Exchange Online) where the provider handles all underlying hardware, OS, and email software. The customer retains administrative control to configure custom email policies, create user accounts, and manage distribution groups via a web console or PowerShell, without any server or software maintenance.

Answer

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Answer

Platform as a Service (PaaS)

Answer

On-premises deployment

Question 16

A desktop computer powers on for about two seconds (fans spin, LEDs flash) then immediately shuts down. It repeats this cycle if the power button is pressed again. The technician has already replaced the power supply with a known-good unit, removed and reseated all expansion cards and memory modules, and tested the system outside the case on a non-conductive surface. The problem persists. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The motherboard is faulty. The symptom of powering on for about two seconds and then immediately shutting down, followed by a repeating cycle, is classic for a short circuit or a critical motherboard failure. Since the technician has already replaced the power supply with a known-good unit, reseated all components, and tested the system outside the case (eliminating case shorts), the only remaining component that can cause this exact behavior is the motherboard itself. A faulty motherboard can fail to initialize the CPU or power regulation (VRM) correctly, triggering the system's overcurrent or thermal protection within seconds.

Answer

The CPU is faulty

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The RAM is incompatible

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The graphics card is drawing too much power

Question 17

A company uses a public cloud IaaS provider. A developer needs to create a new virtual machine for testing. The developer logs into the cloud management console, selects the desired OS and size, and launches the VM. The VM is ready within minutes. No interaction with the cloud provider's staff is required. Which cloud computing characteristic does this best represent?

Accepted Answer

On-demand self-service. The scenario describes a user provisioning a virtual machine without any human interaction with the cloud provider, which is the defining characteristic of on-demand self-service. This capability is a core NIST definition of cloud computing, allowing users to automatically provision computing resources as needed without requiring service provider intervention.

Answer

Resource pooling

Answer

Rapid elasticity

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Measured service

Question 18

A cloud provider offers a service where customers can provision virtual servers with varying amounts of CPU, RAM, and storage on-demand. Customers are billed only for the actual resources they consume each hour, with no upfront commitment. This cloud characteristic is known as:

Accepted Answer

Measured service. The correct answer is D (Measured service) because the scenario describes a pay-per-use billing model where customers are charged based on actual resource consumption (CPU, RAM, storage) per hour, with no upfront commitment. Measured service is a core NIST-defined cloud characteristic that enables metering and billing for usage, typically using a pay-as-you-go model. This directly matches the description of being billed only for resources consumed each hour.

Answer

Resource pooling

Answer

Rapid elasticity

Answer

On-demand self-service

Question 19

A company uses a public cloud IaaS provider. They have deployed a web application across multiple virtual machines in an auto-scaling group. The application requires temporary storage for processing user uploads. The data is only needed while the VM is running and must be deleted when the VM is terminated. The storage must be attached to a single VM and should provide low-latency access. Which cloud storage type should the technician configure?

Accepted Answer

Ephemeral storage (instance store). Ephemeral storage (instance store) is correct because it provides temporary, block-level storage directly attached to a single VM, offering low-latency access. The data is tied to the VM's lifecycle and is automatically deleted when the VM is terminated, matching the requirement for temporary processing of user uploads that must not persist after the VM stops.

Answer

Object storage

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File storage

Answer

Persistent block storage

Question 20

A network administrator is setting up a new wireless network for a small business. The administrator configures a wireless access point with WPA2-PSK and a strong passphrase. Several users on different floors report intermittent connectivity and slow speeds. The administrator checks the access point and finds that the signal strength is excellent in the area. The access point is dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) and broadcasts a single SSID. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the issue?

Accepted Answer

The channel width is set to 40MHz on the 2.4GHz band, causing interference.. In the 2.4 GHz band, using a 40 MHz channel width consumes more spectrum and overlaps with adjacent channels, causing co-channel and adjacent-channel interference. This interference leads to intermittent connectivity and slow speeds, especially on different floors where signal propagation is more complex. The strong signal strength and dual-band setup with a single SSID point to channel width misconfiguration as the most likely cause.

Answer

The access point is configured to use the default IP address, causing an IP conflict.

Answer

The encryption type is too weak for the number of users.

Answer

The access point's firmware is outdated and needs an update.