KCNA Cloud Native Architecture Practice Question
Which TWO practices are recommended for designing cloud-native microservices? (Choose 2)
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse 'configuration in environment variables' (which is acceptable when injected at runtime) with 'storing configuration inside the container image' (which is an anti-pattern), leading them to incorrectly select Option B.
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
✓
Implement health check endpoints for each service.
Health check endpoints (e.g., /healthz or /ready) are a fundamental pattern in cloud-native microservices. They allow orchestration platforms like Kubernetes to perform liveness and readiness probes, ensuring that traffic is only routed to healthy instances and that unhealthy pods are automatically restarted. This aligns with the cloud-native principle of designing for resilience and self-healing.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Share a common database schema across all services.
Why it's wrong here
Shared schema creates coupling; each service should own its data.
- ✗
Store configuration in environment variables inside the container image.
Why it's wrong here
Configuration should be externalized, not baked into images.
- ✓
Implement health check endpoints for each service.
Why this is correct
Health checks enable orchestration platforms to manage service lifecycle.
- ✗
Use synchronous HTTP calls for all inter-service communication.
Why it's wrong here
Excessive synchronous calls can cause cascading failures; async messaging is often better.
- ✓
Design services around business capabilities.
Why this is correct
Bounded context aligns services with business domains.
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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.