KCNA Container Orchestration Practice Question
You are designing a microservices application that requires each service to be independently deployable and scalable. The services communicate over HTTP and need service discovery. Which orchestration feature BEST addresses the need for service discovery?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common trap in CNCF exams is confusing the Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA), which scales pods, with the Kubernetes Service, which provides stable network endpoints for service discovery. Remember: HPA handles scaling, Service handles discovery.
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
✓
Kubernetes Service
Kubernetes Service is the correct choice because it provides a stable network endpoint (IP address and DNS name) for a set of pods, enabling service discovery via DNS or environment variables. This allows microservices to locate and communicate with each other over HTTP without hardcoding IP addresses, which is essential for independent deployability and scalability.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Kubernetes Service
Why this is correct
A Service provides a stable endpoint (IP and DNS name) for a set of pods, enabling service discovery.
- ✗
Horizontal Pod Autoscaler
Why it's wrong here
HPA automatically scales pods based on CPU/memory; it does not provide service discovery.
- ✗
ConfigMap
Why it's wrong here
ConfigMaps store configuration data, not service endpoints.
- ✗
PersistentVolume
Why it's wrong here
PersistentVolumes provide storage, not network discovery.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Kubernetes Overview and Core Components
Key term
ReplicaSet and Replication
A ReplicaSet ensures a specified number of identical pod instances are running at all times in Kubernetes, using replication to maintain availability and stability.
Key term
Kubernetes API Primitives
Kubernetes API Primitives are the basic building blocks that the Kubernetes API uses to represent and manage the state of a cluster, such as Pods, Services, Deployments, and Namespaces.
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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.