KCNA Cloud Native Architecture Practice Question
Which THREE are key characteristics of event-driven architecture? (Choose three.)
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
✓
Event processing can trigger multiple downstream actions
Event-driven architecture is based on producing, detecting, and reacting to events, with loose coupling between components and asynchronous communication.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Event processing can trigger multiple downstream actions
Why this is correct
A single published event can be delivered to many independent subscribers, each performing its own downstream action. This fan-out satisfies the stem's requirement, since one producer action propagates to multiple consumers without the producer orchestrating or even knowing about them.
- ✗
Requires a central database for state
Why it's wrong here
Event-driven components share a broker and event log rather than a central database holding shared state, which reintroduces the coupling the pattern removes. It is tempting because databases persist state reliably, and would be correct for transactional CRUD workloads, but event-driven designs favour decentralised state and event sourcing.
- ✗
Synchronous communication between components
Why it's wrong here
Event-driven architecture decouples producers from consumers through asynchronous messaging, so synchronous request-response coupling contradicts its defining trait. It is tempting because synchronous calls are common in service design, and would be correct for tightly coupled RPC interactions, but event-driven systems rely on brokers and non-blocking delivery.
- ✓
Components communicate by emitting and reacting to events
Why this is correct
The defining interaction model is asynchronous message exchange: producers emit events to a broker, and consumers react when those events arrive. This satisfies the stem's requirement for event-driven characteristics, contrasting with request-response architectures where callers invoke known endpoints synchronously and await replies.
- ✓
Loose coupling between event producers and consumers
Why this is correct
Producers publish events without knowing which consumers exist, so neither side holds direct references or waits on the other. This decoupling satisfies the architecture's requirement that components interact asynchronously, letting consumers be added, replaced or scaled independently without redeploying producers.
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