200-901 Application Deployment and Security Practice Question
A Kubernetes pod needs to read configuration data such as database hostname, which is non-sensitive and may change across environments. Which resource should be used to store this data and inject it into the pod?
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
✓
ConfigMap
ConfigMap stores non-sensitive configuration data. Secret stores sensitive data. Deployment and Service are for workload and networking.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Deployment
Why it's wrong here
A Deployment manages pod replicas and rollout strategy; it holds no separate configuration object for injection. Deployments are correct when declaring container images, replica counts and update behaviour, with configuration supplied by a ConfigMap referenced in the pod spec.
- ✗
Secret
Why it's wrong here
A Secret stores sensitive data such as passwords and tokens; using it for a non-sensitive hostname adds base64 encoding and RBAC overhead without benefit. Secrets are correct when the value must be masked, access-restricted and kept out of plain configuration.
- ✗
Service
Why it's wrong here
A Service provides stable network access to a set of pods; it stores no configuration values and cannot inject environment variables. Services are the right resource when exposing workloads behind a consistent DNS name or load-balanced virtual IP.
- ✓
ConfigMap
Why this is correct
ConfigMaps hold non-sensitive configuration as key-value pairs, decoupled from pod images, so database hostnames can vary per environment without rebuilding containers. Secrets are reserved for sensitive data, making ConfigMap the appropriate resource for injection via environment variables or volumes.
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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.