200-901 Application Deployment and Security Practice Question
A Kubernetes deployment is configured with replicas: 3. During a rolling update, the deployment strategy is set to RollingUpdate with maxSurge: 1 and maxUnavailable: 0. What is the maximum number of pods that will be running during the update?
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
✓
4
With maxSurge=1, one extra pod can be created above the desired 3, and maxUnavailable=0 ensures no pods are taken down before new ones are ready. So the maximum is 4 pods.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
4
Why this is correct
With maxSurge: 1, the deployment may temporarily exceed the desired replica count by one pod, giving a ceiling of four. maxUnavailable: 0 guarantees all three original pods stay available throughout, so the surge pod is added alongside them rather than replacing any.
- ✗
6
Why it's wrong here
With maxSurge: 1 and maxUnavailable: 0, only one extra pod may exist above the three desired replicas, capping the total at four. Six is tempting because it assumes both surge and unavailability add pods simultaneously, which would apply under a larger maxSurge value.
- ✗
5
Why it's wrong here
With maxSurge: 1 and maxUnavailable: 0, the deployment adds one pod above the desired three before terminating any old pod, so the peak is four, not five. The option tempts administrators who add maxSurge and maxUnavailable together, but those parameters govern separate axes and are never summed.
- ✗
3
Why it's wrong here
Three is the steady-state replica count; during the update one surge pod is added, so the maximum running total is four, not three. It is tempting because maxUnavailable: 0 guarantees three pods always remain available, which is the minimum, not the maximum.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This 200-901 question is part of Courseiva's 975-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 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.