PCA Instrumentation And Exporters Practice Question
You are seeing 'NaN' values in your gauge metrics. What does this indicate?
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
✓
An undefined gauge state
NaN (Not a Number) is a valid value for gauges in Prometheus, often indicating that a value is currently undefined or not applicable.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
A scrape error
Why it's wrong here
Scrape errors would result in no metrics.
- ✓
An undefined gauge state
Why this is correct
NaN is a valid floating point representation for gauge states.
- ✗
Metric type mismatch
Why it's wrong here
This would likely cause an error at registration.
- ✗
Label collision
Why it's wrong here
Label collisions cause duplicates, not NaNs.
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every PCA question from scratch — 304 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed August 2026 · checked against the official CNCF / Linux Foundation exam blueprint
This PCA practice question is part of Courseiva's free CNCF / Linux Foundation 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 PCA exam.