mediumMultiple Choice
220-1201 Practice Question: A technician is building a workstation for video…
A technician is building a workstation for video editing and needs to configure a RAID array for maximum performance without redundancy. The motherboard supports RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10. Which RAID level should the technician choose?
⚠ Common exam trap
220-1201 often tests whether candidates conflate 'performance' with 'redundancy' — RAID 0 is the only listed level that maximizes performance while explicitly providing no redundancy, so any answer implying fault tolerance is wrong.
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
✓
RAID 0
RAID 0 (striping) writes data across multiple disks with no mirroring or parity, delivering the highest read and write performance of the listed levels but providing zero redundancy. Since the requirement is maximum performance without redundancy, RAID 0 is the correct choice. A single disk failure in RAID 0 destroys the entire array, but that trade-off is explicitly acceptable here.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
RAID 1
Why it's wrong here
RAID 1, or mirroring, duplicates data across two drives. While it provides excellent data redundancy and can slightly improve read performance, it offers no significant write performance improvement, which is crucial for video editing. Furthermore, it effectively halves the total storage capacity, making it inefficient for large video files where maximum storage and write speed are paramount.
- ✗
RAID 5
Why it's wrong here
RAID 5 stripes data across multiple drives (minimum three) and includes distributed parity information. This configuration provides a good balance of performance and fault tolerance, allowing for the loss of one drive without data loss. However, the overhead involved in calculating and writing parity data significantly impacts write performance compared to RAID 0, making it less ideal for the extremely write-intensive demands of high-resolution video editing.
- ✓
RAID 0
Why this is correct
RAID 0, or striping, distributes data across two or more drives without any redundancy. This configuration maximizes read and write performance by allowing multiple drives to work in parallel on different parts of the same file, effectively multiplying the throughput. For video editing, where large files are constantly being read and written, this unparalleled speed is critical for smooth playback, rendering, and scrubbing, making it the optimal choice despite the lack of fault tolerance.
- ✗
RAID 10
Why it's wrong here
RAID 10 (or RAID 1+0) combines the striping of RAID 0 with the mirroring of RAID 1, requiring a minimum of four drives. It offers both excellent performance and high data redundancy, as data is striped across mirrored pairs. While it provides better performance than RAID 1 and better redundancy than RAID 0, the primary requirement for video editing is maximum raw speed, and RAID 10 still sacrifices half its total capacity for redundancy, which is not the top priority over pure performance in this specific workstation build.
Quick reference
RAID Level Comparison
| RAID Level | Min Disks | Fault Tolerance | Read | Write | Usable Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RAID 0 | 2 | None | Excellent | Excellent | 100% |
| RAID 1 | 2 | 1 disk | Good | Moderate | 50% |
| RAID 5 | 3 | 1 disk | Good | Moderate | 67–94% |
| RAID 6 | 4 | 2 disks | Good | Lower | 50–88% |
| RAID 10 | 4 | 1 disk per mirror | Excellent | Good | 50% |
RAID is not a backup strategy — it protects against disk failure but not against accidental deletion, ransomware, or site-level events.
Go deeper
Related to this question
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Key term
Redundant Array of Independent Disks
A technology that combines multiple physical hard drives into a single logical unit to improve performance, reliability, or both.
Key term
Motherboard
The main circuit board inside a computer that connects all components so they can communicate with each other and receive power.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official CompTIA exam blueprint
This 220-1201 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA 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 220-1201 exam.