KCNA Cloud Native Observability Practice Question
Which Prometheus metric type is used to represent a value that can increase or decrease over time, such as memory usage?
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
✓
Gauge
A gauge is a metric that can go up and down, like memory usage or temperature.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Gauge
Why this is correct
A gauge can increase or decrease.
- ✗
Histogram
Why it's wrong here
A histogram samples observations and counts them in buckets.
- ✗
Summary
Why it's wrong here
A summary also samples observations but provides quantiles.
- ✗
Counter
Why it's wrong here
A counter only increases.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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