KCNA Cloud Native Architecture Practice Question
An application experiences intermittent failures when calling an external API. Which resilience pattern should be implemented to handle transient faults?
⚠ Common exam trap
CNCF often tests the distinction between handling transient faults (Retry) versus preventing cascading failures (Circuit breaker), leading candidates to choose Circuit breaker when the question explicitly mentions 'intermittent' or 'transient' faults.
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
✓
Retry
(Retry) is correct because intermittent failures when calling an external API are typically transient faults (e.g., network glitches, temporary service unavailability). The Retry pattern automatically reattempts the failed operation a configured number of times, often with exponential backoff, to overcome these short-lived issues without changing the application's overall architecture. This directly addresses the scenario's requirement to handle transient faults.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Bulkhead
Why it's wrong here
Bulkhead isolates resources to prevent cascading failures.
- ✗
Circuit breaker
Why it's wrong here
Circuit breaker prevents repeated calls when a service is down, but retry is for transient faults.
- ✗
Timeout
Why it's wrong here
Timeout sets a limit on wait time, but does not retry.
- ✓
Retry
Why this is correct
Retry handles transient failures by reattempting the operation.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This KCNA practice question is part of Courseiva's free CNCF 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 KCNA exam.