Be able to state Prometheus's default retention, explain Pushgateway's batch-job purpose and stale-metric caveat, read the 'up' metric for scrape health, and apply rate() to counters over a range vector. The single most important thing: rate() requires a counter and a range selector, returning per-second values.
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Domain overview
Prometheus Fundamentals covers the core data model, metric types, scrape-based collection, and PromQL basics that every PCA candidate must know. Questions test retention defaults, the Pushgateway's role, the synthetic 'up' metric, and rate() semantics. Expect direct recall plus scenario items distinguishing counters, gauges, histograms, and summaries in real configurations.
Exam objectives
Default Prometheus TSDB retention period and how --storage.tsdb.retention.time overrides it
Pushgateway behavior: batch job metrics, no automatic deletion, and its limitations for service monitoring
The 'up' metric: synthetic per-target scrape health indicator, value 1 or 0
PromQL rate() and irate() converting counters to per-second rates over a range vector
Assuming Pushgateway is a general metrics proxy; it is only for short-lived batch jobs and never deletes pushed series automatically
Confusing rate() with increase() or applying rate() to gauges instead of counters
Believing 'up' reflects application health rather than whether the scrape itself succeeded
Click any question to see the full explanation and answer options, or start a focused practice session above.
When configuring Alertmanager to send notifications to Slack, which block defines the routing tree?
2Which file format does Prometheus use for its main configuration?
3In the Prometheus data model, what is a 'sample'?
4You are deploying Prometheus in a Kubernetes cluster and need to ensure it discovers pods labeled 'app=frontend'. Which configuration block is required?
5A batch job runs for only 30 seconds every hour. How should you expose these metrics to Prometheus?
6Which component is responsible for receiving alerts from Prometheus and managing notification delivery?
7Your Prometheus server is hitting high memory usage due to high cardinality. Which action is most effective at reducing memory pressure?
8What is the default port that Prometheus listens on?
9You are performing a 'label_replace' operation. What is the correct syntax for a regex capture group?
10Which TSDB component is responsible for ensuring data durability if the server crashes?
11Which mechanism allows Prometheus to discover targets by reading a list from a file?
12What is the primary language used to query Prometheus data?
13When using the 'scrape_timeout', what happens if the timeout is reached?
14Which component is best suited for long-term storage?
15What is the purpose of the 'rule_files' configuration?
16Which function is used to convert a counter rate into a per-second rate over a time range?
17What is the behavior of the 'absent()' function?
18Which metric type is best for reporting the number of requests received by a service?
19What is the default value for the scrape interval?
20Which label is used to group alerts in Alertmanager?
21What is the purpose of the 'up' metric?
22Which component allows Prometheus to be scaled horizontally for high availability?
23When a Prometheus server is restarted, how does it recover the in-memory data?
24Which operator performs a set union in PromQL?
25What happens if a label set for a metric changes during its lifetime?
26What is the default retention period for Prometheus data?
27What is the purpose of 'tombstones' in the TSDB?
28What is the benefit of using recording rules?
29Where do you define the scrape interval for a specific target?
30Which THREE of the following are valid Prometheus TSDB file types?
31Which TWO of the following are valid ways to configure target discovery in Prometheus?
32Which TWO of the following are core responsibilities of the Prometheus server?
33Which THREE of the following metrics are automatically added to all scraped targets?
34Which TWO of the following are valid Alertmanager configuration blocks?
35Which THREE labels are often considered part of the default Prometheus ecosystem metrics?
36Which THREE conditions cause a scrape to be unsuccessful?
37Which TWO of the following are true about the Pushgateway?
38Which TWO of the following are valid ways to run Prometheus?
39Which THREE of the following are components of a Prometheus alert state?
40Which THREE features are provided by the Prometheus HTTP API?
41Which TWO of the following are valid data types in Prometheus?
42Which THREE of the following are common sources of high cardinality?
43Which TWO of the following can be configured globally?
44Which THREE of the following are required to expose a new metric in an application?
Be able to state Prometheus's default retention, explain Pushgateway's batch-job purpose and stale-metric caveat, read the 'up' metric for scrape health, and apply rate() to counters over a range vector. The single most important thing: rate() requires a counter and a range selector, returning per-second values.
The Courseiva PCA question bank contains 44 questions in the Prometheus Fundamentals 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 Prometheus Fundamentals domain. Choose 10, 20, 30, or 50 questions for a focused session, or click individual questions to review them one by one.
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