KCNA Cloud Native Observability Practice Question
Which tool is specifically designed for log aggregation and is built by Grafana Labs as a lightweight, cost-effective alternative to traditional log systems?
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
✓
Loki
Loki is a log aggregation system optimized for Kubernetes, designed to be cost-effective and easy to operate.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Loki
Why this is correct
Loki indexes only metadata labels rather than full log text, storing compressed chunks in object storage, which satisfies the lightweight, cost-effective constraint. Built by Grafana Labs, it aggregates logs alongside Prometheus-style metrics, making it the purpose-built alternative to traditional full-text indexing systems such as Elasticsearch.
- ✗
Zipkin
Why it's wrong here
Zipkin is a distributed tracing system that records span timing across service calls, so it does not ingest or index log lines. Its OpenTracing heritage and Grafana dashboards make it tempting in observability contexts, but Loki is the Grafana Labs log aggregation tool; Zipkin suits latency tracing, not log centralisation.
- ✗
Prometheus
Why it's wrong here
Prometheus is a metrics monitoring and time-series database, not a log aggregation system; Loki is Grafana Labs' log tool. It tempts because Prometheus and Loki share label-based querying and Grafana integration, so it is the correct choice for metrics collection rather than logs.
- ✗
Jaeger
Why it's wrong here
Jaeger performs distributed tracing, capturing spans across microservices to diagnose latency, not aggregating log streams. It is tempting because Grafana Labs also maintains it and it ships in observability stacks, but Loki is the Grafana-built log aggregation system; Jaeger would be chosen for tracing request flows, not centralising logs.
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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.