KCNA Cloud Native Architecture Practice Test 7 — 15 Questions

Question 1

Which service mesh component is responsible for handling inter-service communication as a sidecar proxy?

Accepted Answer

Envoy. Envoy is the correct answer because it is the sidecar proxy component in Istio that handles all inter-service communication. It intercepts traffic between microservices and applies routing, load balancing, and security policies defined by the control plane. Envoy runs as a sidecar container alongside each service instance, managing inbound and outbound traffic at the L4/L7 layer.

Answer

Mixer

Answer

Pilot

Answer

Citadel

Question 2

A team wants to manage their Kubernetes infrastructure using code. Which tool is specifically designed for Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and can manage Kubernetes resources?

Accepted Answer

Terraform. Terraform is a dedicated Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool that uses declarative configuration files (HCL) to provision and manage cloud resources, including Kubernetes clusters and their workloads. It maintains state to track resource dependencies and can orchestrate Kubernetes resources via its Kubernetes provider, making it the correct choice for managing Kubernetes infrastructure as code.

Answer

Helm

Answer

kubectl

Answer

Kustomize

Question 3

Which of the following patterns is used to improve resilience by isolating failures to a subset of components?

Accepted Answer

Bulkhead. The Bulkhead pattern (D) is correct because it isolates failures by partitioning resources (e.g., thread pools, connections) into separate pools for different components or services. This prevents a failure in one component from exhausting shared resources and cascading to others, directly improving resilience by containing the blast radius.

Answer

Timeout

Answer

Retry

Answer

Circuit breaker

Question 4

In serverless computing, what is the primary characteristic of Function-as-a-Service (FaaS)?

Accepted Answer

Auto-scaling to zero. The defining characteristic of FaaS is that functions are event-driven and the platform automatically scales the number of running instances from zero up to meet demand, then back down to zero when idle. This means you pay only for actual execution time, not for idle capacity. Auto-scaling to zero is what fundamentally separates FaaS from container-as-a-service or VM-based models.

Answer

Stateful execution

Answer

Always running instances

Answer

Manual scaling

Question 5

What is the primary purpose of an API gateway in a microservices architecture?

Accepted Answer

To act as a single entry point for external clients. The primary purpose of an API gateway in a microservices architecture is to act as a single entry point for external clients, hiding the internal service topology and centralizing concerns like routing, authentication, and rate limiting. Clients talk only to the gateway, which forwards requests to the appropriate backend microservice. This simplifies client code and allows services to evolve independently.

Answer

To manage service-to-service communication within a cluster

Answer

To replace DNS for service discovery

Answer

To directly connect databases to clients

Question 6

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 7

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

Accepted Answer

Dependencies. Option C (Dependencies) is correct because the 12-factor app's Dependencies principle requires applications to explicitly declare and isolate all dependencies via a dependency declaration manifest (e.g., requirements.txt, Gemfile, package.json) and a dependency isolation tool (e.g., virtualenv, Bundler), so the app never relies on implicit system-wide packages. Option E (Config) is correct because the Config principle mandates storing configuration in environment variables rather than in code or checked-in files, keeping config strictly separate from the codebase so the same build can be deployed across environments. The unmarked options do not belong: Shared state (A) contradicts the stateless processes principle, which requires sharing nothing between processes and externalizing state to backing services; Manual deployment (B) contradicts the Build/Release/Run and CI/CD automation principles; and Singleton processes (D) contradicts the concurrency principle, which favors scaling out via multiple stateless processes rather than relying on a single long-lived instance.

Answer

Shared state

Answer

Manual deployment

Answer

Singleton processes

Question 8

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

Accepted Answer

Security. A service mesh provides security benefits (B) by enforcing mutual TLS (mTLS) between workloads, issuing and rotating service identities/certificates, and applying fine-grained authorization policies without changing application code. It delivers observability (C) through sidecar proxies that automatically collect metrics (e.g., request rate, latency, error rates), distributed traces, and access logs across service-to-service calls. It also offers traffic management (E) via features such as dynamic routing, load balancing, retries, timeouts, circuit breaking, and canary or blue/green deployments. The remaining options are unrelated: database management (A) is handled by database systems or DBaaS platforms, not a service mesh, and code compilation (D) is a build-time developer/CI activity that a service mesh does not perform.

Answer

Database management

Answer

Code compilation

Question 9

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

Accepted Answer

Terraform. Terraform (A) is a declarative Infrastructure as Code tool that uses HCL configuration files and providers to provision and manage cloud and on-premises resources through a state file. Pulumi (C) is also an IaC tool, allowing infrastructure to be defined in general-purpose programming languages such as TypeScript, Python, Go, and C# and deployed via its engine. kubectl (B) is a command-line client for interacting with Kubernetes clusters, not an IaC provisioning tool. Helm (D) is a Kubernetes package manager that templates and deploys manifests, and Docker Compose (E) orchestrates multi-container Docker applications from a YAML file; both manage application deployment rather than provisioning infrastructure as code.

Answer

kubectl

Answer

Helm

Answer

Docker Compose

Question 10

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

Accepted Answer

Sidecar proxy. In a service mesh, the sidecar proxy is deployed alongside each microservice instance and transparently intercepts all inbound and outbound network traffic. It enforces policies, collects telemetry, and manages routing without requiring changes to the application code. The control plane configures these proxies but does not handle the actual data path.

Answer

Control plane

Answer

API gateway

Answer

Service registry

Question 11

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's third factor, 'Config,' states that configuration should be stored in the environment (environment variables), not in the code. This separates config from code, allowing the same build to be deployed across environments (dev, staging, prod) without modification. Environment variables are language-agnostic and easily changed per deployment.

Answer

Store configuration in the application code

Answer

Embed configuration in the build process

Answer

Use a configuration file in the application directory

Question 12

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. Deploying applications using Kubernetes on each cloud provides a consistent orchestration and API layer across providers, so workloads can be moved with minimal changes. Kubernetes abstracts compute, networking, and storage through standard primitives (Pods, Services, PVCs), reducing provider-specific coupling. This is the core pattern for portable multi-cloud deployments.

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 13

Which CNCF project provides a graduated service mesh implementation that includes features like traffic management, security, and observability?

Accepted Answer

Linkerd. Linkerd is a graduated CNCF project that provides a service mesh with features like traffic management, security (mTLS), and observability. Istio is also a service mesh but is incubating, not graduated. Envoy is a graduated proxy but not a full service mesh. Consul is not a CNCF project.

Answer

Consul

Answer

Envoy

Answer

Istio

Question 14

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

Accepted Answer

Event broker. The event broker (e.g., Kafka, RabbitMQ, NATS) is the central component that receives events from producers and routes them to consumers, allowing producers and consumers to operate independently without direct knowledge of each other. It provides asynchronous, decoupled communication by buffering events, managing subscriptions, and ensuring delivery. This decoupling enables scalability, fault tolerance, and independent evolution of services.

Answer

Config server

Answer

API gateway

Answer

Service mesh

Question 15

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 is a vendor-neutral organization under the Linux Foundation that hosts and supports open-source cloud-native projects like Kubernetes, Prometheus, and Envoy. Its primary role is to foster collaboration, provide governance, and manage the lifecycle of these projects to ensure their long-term sustainability. While it does define standards and certify providers, these are secondary activities that support its core mission of hosting open-source projects.

Answer

To develop proprietary cloud software

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To define cloud-native standards only

Answer

To certify cloud providers