Be able to instrument a Go service with a client library, register and expose a metric, and select the correct metric type. The critical skill is controlling label cardinality and knowing that blackbox_exporter modules define how a probe runs, not which target is scraped.
Start practicing
Instrumentation And Exporters — choose a session length
Free · No account required
Domain overview
This domain covers how applications and targets expose metrics to Prometheus: client libraries, exporter design, and scrape-time configuration. Questions test Go client registration, metric type selection, cardinality control, and blackbox_exporter module semantics. Expect scenario-style items where you pick the right function, type, or config field rather than recite definitions.
Exam objectives
Registering custom metrics in Go via prometheus.MustRegister and promhttp handler exposure
Choosing counter, gauge, and histogram types for process and request measurements
Diagnosing high cardinality from unbounded label values in custom exporters
Configuring blackbox_exporter modules for HTTP, TCP, ICMP, and DNS probes
Using a Counter for a value that can decrease, such as current memory usage, instead of a Gauge.
Labelling metrics with user IDs, request paths, or timestamps, exploding the series count in the TSDB.
Confusing blackbox_exporter's module (probe type and settings) with the target URL passed at scrape time.
Click any question to see the full explanation and answer options, or start a focused practice session above.
Your application has a short-lived batch job that finishes before the Prometheus server can scrape it. What architectural component should be used?
2You need to track the number of requests received by your application. Which metric type should you choose?
3Which action should be avoided when creating labels for custom metrics?
4When implementing a custom exporter, what format must the output follow to be correctly scraped by Prometheus?
5You are using the blackbox_exporter to monitor an HTTP endpoint. Which module configuration is required to check the HTTP status code?
6A developer wants to expose a metric that represents the current memory usage of a process. Which type is most appropriate?
7You are monitoring a Linux server and need to track CPU usage. Which exporter is the standard choice for exposing hardware and OS metrics?
8What is the default port used by node_exporter?
9When running node_exporter, how can you disable specific collectors like 'textfile'?
10You are instrumenting a Go application. What is the standard way to register a metric?
11A Histogram has buckets [0.1, 0.5, 1, 5]. A request takes 0.7 seconds. Which buckets will be incremented?
12What is the effect of using a 'Summary' metric with client-side quantiles?
13When writing a custom exporter in Python, what is the most common way to expose the metrics?
14What is the purpose of the 'le' label in a Histogram?
15When creating a custom exporter, which component is responsible for scraping the data?
16When using the Pushgateway, what happens if you push a metric with the same name and labels as an existing one?
17What is the impact of naming a metric starting with an underscore?
18When using the Prometheus Go client, what is the difference between a Gauge and a GaugeVec?
19You notice your custom exporter is timing out during scraping. What is the most likely cause?
20What is the primary function of the 'blackbox_exporter' in a monitoring architecture?
21What is the purpose of the 'instance' label in Prometheus?
22When configuring a custom exporter, how do you provide labels to a metric?
23You are seeing 'NaN' values in your gauge metrics. What does this indicate?
24Which metric type is most appropriate for tracking the current total number of active user sessions?
25If you are using a Histogram, what is the purpose of the '_sum' metric?
26What is the recommended approach for metrics that only need to be exposed periodically?
27Which THREE of the following are valid metric types in Prometheus?
28What does the `_count` suffix denote in a summary or histogram?
29Why are metric names required to follow a specific character set (e.g., alphanumeric and colons)?
30Which tool would you use to monitor the availability of a website from various geographic locations?
31When instrumenting an application, why is it recommended to use a fixed set of label names?
32Which TWO of the following are common reasons to use the Pushgateway?
33Which TWO of the following are true about the node_exporter?
34Which TWO of the following are true regarding Prometheus Histograms?
35Which TWO of the following are true about the Blackbox exporter?
36Which THREE components are typically involved in the standard Prometheus instrumentation and scraping process?
37Which THREE of the following are standard ways to handle Prometheus metrics?
38Which THREE of the following are key design considerations when creating a custom exporter?
39Which THREE of the following are true about the Prometheus Text Exposition Format?
40Which TWO of the following are true about the Gauge metric type?
41Which THREE of the following are common issues that cause scraping failures?
42Which TWO of the following should be considered when defining metric names?
43Which THREE of the following are valid approaches to instrumenting an application?
44You are monitoring server hardware metrics using node_exporter. You observe that the metrics are not showing up in Prometheus. Which initial troubleshooting step is most effective?
45A developer wants to track the total number of requests received by a web service. Which metric type is most appropriate for this requirement?
46You are implementing a custom exporter for a legacy database. The database provides a single value representing the number of active connections. Which metric type should you use to best represent this data?
47You need to monitor the availability of a specific web endpoint from external locations using blackbox_exporter. What is the primary purpose of the 'module' configuration in blackbox_exporter?
48You have a histogram metric tracking request durations. You need to calculate the 99th percentile across all instances in a cluster. Why is this difficult with standard Prometheus metrics?
49You are troubleshooting high cardinality in your metrics. What is a common cause for this in a custom exporter?
50When using a Prometheus client library to instrument a Go application, which function call is typically used to register a new metric?
51Which THREE of the following are common use cases for the node_exporter?
Be able to instrument a Go service with a client library, register and expose a metric, and select the correct metric type. The critical skill is controlling label cardinality and knowing that blackbox_exporter modules define how a probe runs, not which target is scraped.
The Courseiva PCA question bank contains 51 questions in the Instrumentation And Exporters domain. Click any question to see the full explanation and answer breakdown.
Start with a 10-question focused session to identify your baseline accuracy in this domain. Read every explanation — even for questions you answer correctly — to understand the reasoning. Once you score consistently above 80%, move to a 20–30 question session to confirm depth before moving to the next domain.
Yes — the session launcher on this page draws questions exclusively from the Instrumentation And Exporters domain. Choose 10, 20, 30, or 50 questions for a focused session, or click individual questions to review them one by one.
Save your results, see per-domain analytics, and get readiness scores — free, for every certification.
Sign Up FreeFree forever · Every certification included