MLS-C01 Practice Question: Machine Learning Implementation and Operations
A company deploys a SageMaker endpoint for real-time inference. After a week, the response latency increases from 50 ms to 500 ms. CPU utilization is at 30%. What is the most likely cause?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The inference code makes a call to a downstream service that is throttling requests
Increased latency with low CPU utilization indicates that the model itself is not compute-bound. Instead, the bottleneck is likely external, such as a downstream service (e.g., database, API) that the inference code calls. Throttling by that service causes requests to queue up, increasing latency without raising CPU usage on the SageMaker instance. Option A would typically cause memory pressure rather than low CPU. Option B would show high CPU if underpowered. Option D would cause connection errors, not just latency increase.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The model has a memory leak
Why it's wrong here
Memory leak would cause high memory utilization and potential OOM, not just latency increase.
- ✗
The instance type is underpowered for the inference load
Why it's wrong here
Underpowered instance would show high CPU utilization, not 30%.
- ✓
The inference code makes a call to a downstream service that is throttling requests
Why this is correct
Downstream throttling can increase latency without high CPU on the endpoint.
- ✗
The SageMaker endpoint is experiencing a network outage
Why it's wrong here
Network outage would cause errors, not consistently higher latency.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This MLS-C01 question is part of Courseiva's 1,672-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This MLS-C01 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the MLS-C01 exam.