mediumMultiple Choice
200-901 Practice Question: A DevOps team is using Cisco AppDynamics to…
A DevOps team is using Cisco AppDynamics to monitor a microservices application. They notice that a specific service's response time spikes under load. Which AppDynamics feature should be used to drill down into the transaction trace?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the distinction between the logical grouping (Business Transactions) and the raw trace data (Transaction Snapshots), trapping candidates who confuse the container with the content.
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
✓
Transaction Snapshots
Transaction Snapshots in AppDynamics capture detailed traces of individual requests, including call chains, method timings, and database queries. When a response time spike occurs, drilling into Transaction Snapshots provides the precise data needed for root-cause analysis. Business Transactions are logical groupings of similar transactions; while they can be used to locate the problematic transaction, the direct drill-down feature for detailed traces is the Transaction Snapshot.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Health Rules
Why it's wrong here
Health Rules define thresholds and trigger alerts or remediation when metrics breach them; they do not capture or display individual transaction traces. They are tempting because they detect the response-time spike, but diagnosing the slow request requires Transaction Snapshots, which record the call stack and timing breakdown.
- ✓
Transaction Snapshots
Why this is correct
Transaction Snapshots capture full call-graph detail, including slow and stalled downstream calls, for individual slow or erroring transactions. Drilling into a snapshot isolates which tier or remote call causes the response-time spike under load, which is exactly what the stem asks for.
- ✗
Business Transactions
Why it's wrong here
Business Transactions group related user requests for monitoring, but drilling into an individual slow trace requires Transaction Snapshots. Business Transactions are tempting because they surface response-time metrics and identify the affected service, yet the trace-level detail lives in snapshots, not the transaction definition itself.
- ✗
Service Endpoints
Why it's wrong here
Service Endpoints identify the backend tiers a business transaction calls, showing where time is spent per downstream service, but they do not expose the call stack of a single slow request. They are tempting because endpoint metrics localise the bottleneck, yet the transaction trace itself is captured in Transaction Snapshots.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 200-901 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Cisco 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 200-901 exam.