KCNA Cloud Native Architecture Practice Test 6 — 15 Questions

Question 1

In event-driven architecture, which component is responsible for decoupling event producers from consumers?

Accepted Answer

Event broker. The event broker (e.g., Apache Kafka, RabbitMQ, or AWS EventBridge) acts as an intermediary that receives events from producers and forwards them to consumers. By decoupling the two, the producer does not need to know the consumer's location or status, and the consumer does not need to be actively listening when the event is published. This enables asynchronous, scalable, and fault-tolerant communication in event-driven architectures.

Answer

Event consumer

Answer

Event producer

Answer

API gateway

Question 2

Which service mesh provides built-in support for multi-cluster and multi-cloud deployments?

Accepted Answer

Istio. Istio is correct because it provides native support for multi-cluster and multi-cloud deployments through its mesh federation capabilities, including features like multi-primary and primary-remote cluster models, as well as east-west gateways for cross-cluster traffic. It leverages Envoy proxies and a unified control plane to enable service discovery, traffic management, and security across clusters, making it the only option among the listed that offers built-in, production-ready multi-cluster support.

Answer

Kuma

Answer

Consul Connect

Answer

Linkerd

Question 3

Which TWO of the following are core principles of the 12-factor app? (Choose 2.)

Accepted Answer

Dependencies. The 12-factor app includes principles such as explicit dependency declaration (Dependencies) and strict separation of config from code (Config).

Answer

Shared state

Answer

Manual deployment

Answer

Singleton processes

Question 4

Which THREE of the following are benefits of using a service mesh? (Choose 3.)

Accepted Answer

Security. A service mesh, such as Istio or Linkerd, offloads cross-cutting concerns from application code into a dedicated infrastructure layer. Security is a core benefit because the service mesh can enforce mutual TLS (mTLS) between all service-to-service communications, providing encryption, identity verification, and fine-grained access policies without modifying application code.

Answer

Database management

Answer

Code compilation

Question 5

Which TWO of the following are examples of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools? (Choose 2.)

Accepted Answer

Terraform. Terraform and Pulumi are popular IaC tools that allow infrastructure provisioning via code.

Answer

kubectl

Answer

Helm

Answer

Docker Compose

Question 6

Which CNCF project is primarily focused on providing a unified way to define and manage cloud-native applications using declarative configuration stored in Git?

Accepted Answer

ArgoCD. GitOps uses Git as the single source of truth for declarative infrastructure and application configuration. ArgoCD is a CNCF graduated project that implements GitOps for Kubernetes. Flux is also a GitOps tool but ArgoCD is more widely recognized as the primary GitOps project.

Answer

Helm

Answer

Prometheus

Answer

Envoy

Question 7

A development team wants to deploy a serverless function that scales to zero when not in use. Which CNCF project or platform is BEST suited for this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Knative. Knative is a Kubernetes-based platform to build, deploy, and manage serverless workloads that can scale to zero. AWS Lambda is a proprietary offering, not CNCF. OpenFaaS and Kubeless are also serverless frameworks but Knative is the most prominent CNCF serverless project.

Answer

Kubeless

Answer

AWS Lambda

Answer

OpenFaaS

Question 8

In a service mesh architecture, which component is responsible for intercepting and managing traffic between microservices?

Accepted Answer

Sidecar proxy. The sidecar proxy (usually Envoy) is deployed alongside each service instance and handles all incoming and outgoing traffic, enabling observability, traffic management, and security. The control plane manages configuration but does not handle data plane traffic. The API gateway is a separate component for external traffic. The service registry is a pattern but not a specific service mesh component.

Answer

Control plane

Answer

API gateway

Answer

Service registry

Question 9

Which of the following is a key principle of the 12-factor app methodology related to managing configuration?

Accepted Answer

Use environment variables for configuration. The 12-factor app methodology states that configuration should be stored in environment variables (or external to the code) to vary between deployments without changing code. Hardcoding is the opposite. ConfigMaps are Kubernetes-specific but the principle is broader. Secrets are for sensitive data but not the only way.

Answer

Store configuration in the application code

Answer

Embed configuration in the build process

Answer

Use a configuration file in the application directory

Question 10

A company is adopting a multi-cloud strategy to avoid vendor lock-in. Which pattern BEST supports deploying applications across different cloud providers with minimal changes?

Accepted Answer

Deploy applications using Kubernetes on each cloud. Using Kubernetes as a consistent abstraction layer allows applications to run across different cloud providers with minimal modifications since it uses a common API and container orchestration. Cloud-specific APIs would lock you in, and hybrid cloud typically refers to mixing public and private cloud, not necessarily multi-cloud.

Answer

Use a hybrid cloud approach with a single cloud for all workloads

Answer

Use each cloud provider's native services directly

Answer

Write application code that checks the cloud provider and adapts

Question 11

Which of the following is a resiliency pattern that limits the number of concurrent requests to a service to prevent overload?

Accepted Answer

Bulkhead. Bulkhead isolates resources into pools (e.g., thread pools) so that a failure in one pool does not cascade. Circuit breaker stops calls after failures, retry repeats failed calls, and timeout limits wait time.

Answer

Retry

Answer

Timeout

Answer

Circuit breaker

Question 12

Which component in an event-driven architecture is responsible for decoupling event producers from consumers?

Accepted Answer

Event broker. An event broker (or message broker) acts as an intermediary that receives events from producers and delivers them to consumers, allowing loose coupling. The API gateway handles synchronous requests. The service mesh handles service-to-service communication. The config server manages configuration.

Answer

Config server

Answer

API gateway

Answer

Service mesh

Question 13

What is the primary purpose of the CNCF (Cloud Native Computing Foundation)?

Accepted Answer

To host and support open-source cloud-native projects. The CNCF hosts, supports, and sustains open-source cloud-native projects, ensuring they are vendor-neutral and fostering community collaboration. It does not develop projects itself but provides a governance model.

Answer

To develop proprietary cloud software

Answer

To define cloud-native standards only

Answer

To certify cloud providers

Question 14

An application deployed on Kubernetes is experiencing intermittent failures due to network latency. Which resiliency pattern should be implemented to gracefully handle such failures?

Accepted Answer

Retry. Retry pattern automatically retries failed operations, which is appropriate for transient failures like network latency. Circuit breaker prevents repeated calls to a failing service. Timeout sets a maximum wait. Bulkhead isolates resources.

Answer

Circuit breaker

Answer

Bulkhead

Answer

Timeout

Question 15

Which of the following is a benefit of using a service mesh?

Accepted Answer

Enhanced observability and traffic control. A service mesh provides observability (metrics, tracing), traffic management (routing, load balancing), and security (mTLS) without requiring changes to application code. It does not directly manage storage or scaling.

Answer

Simplified storage management

Answer

Automatic scaling of applications

Answer

Direct database access