KCNA Cloud Native Architecture Practice Question
In a serverless architecture using Knative, what happens to a service that has not received traffic for an extended period?
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
✓
It scales down to zero replicas and is reactivated on the next request
Knative scales to zero when idle, meaning no pods are running, thus no cost incurred.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
It throws an error and must be redeployed
Why it's wrong here
No error; the service is simply scaled down.
- ✗
It continues running with one replica to reduce cold start latency
Why it's wrong here
Knative can scale to zero; it does not keep a minimum replica by default.
- ✓
It scales down to zero replicas and is reactivated on the next request
Why this is correct
Knative supports auto-scaling to zero for idle services.
- ✗
It is automatically deleted
Why it's wrong here
The service is not deleted; it scales to zero.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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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.