220-1101 Virtualization and Cloud Computing Practice Question
A small business wants to develop and deploy a custom web application. They do not want to manage any underlying infrastructure, including servers, operating systems, or runtime environments. They want to simply upload their code and let the cloud provider handle scaling and maintenance. Which cloud service model BEST fits this requirement?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse IaaS with PaaS, thinking that IaaS provides enough abstraction, but IaaS still requires the customer to manage the OS and runtime, which violates the 'no management' requirement.
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
✓
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Platform as a Service (PaaS) is the correct choice because it provides a complete development and deployment environment in the cloud, abstracting away the underlying infrastructure. The business can upload custom code without managing servers, OS, or runtime, and the cloud provider automatically handles scaling, patching, and maintenance. This directly matches the requirement to avoid infrastructure management while deploying a custom web application.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
Why it's wrong here
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) supplies raw virtualized compute, storage, and networking, but it deliberately places management of the guest OS, middleware, runtime, web server, and application on the customer. Even with managed virtual machines or container instances, you must still patch kernels, configure security, set up scaling, and handle high availability—exactly the infrastructure administration the business wants to avoid. PaaS eliminates this operational burden by providing an integrated runtime platform, so selecting IaaS would leave the team with a DevOps-heavy workload.
When this WOULD be correct
A company needs to migrate an existing on-premises application to the cloud and requires full control over the operating system, middleware, and runtime configurations. They are willing to manage these components but want to avoid physical hardware management.
- ✓
Platform as a Service (PaaS)
Why this is correct
PaaS delivers a platform to develop, run, and manage applications. The provider manages the underlying infrastructure, operating system, and runtime, allowing the customer to focus solely on deploying code. This exactly matches the business's needs.
- ✗
Software as a Service (SaaS)
Why it's wrong here
Software as a Service (SaaS) delivers fully finished, ready-to-use applications such as CRM or email platforms that customers consume via a web browser or API. Because the provider owns and controls the application's source code, data schema, and feature roadmap, there is no runtime environment or deployment pipeline available for you to upload and run custom web application code. You can tailor configuration settings, but you cannot develop or host original code, making SaaS fundamentally mismatched to this requirement.
When this WOULD be correct
A company wants to use a cloud-based email service, customer relationship management (CRM) tool, or office productivity suite without managing the underlying infrastructure or developing the software themselves.
- ✗
Anything as a Service (XaaS)
Why it's wrong here
Anything as a Service (XaaS) is an overarching industry term that groups all cloud service models—IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and newer offerings like FaaS and DBaaS—into a single conceptual bucket. Choosing XaaS would not commit to any particular service tier, so it fails to address the concrete requirement of deploying custom code without managing hardware or OS layers. It is a classification label, not an actionable deployment model.
Option-by-option analysis
Why each answer is right or wrong
Understanding why wrong answers are wrong — and when they would be correct — is what separates a 750 score from a 900. The 220-1101 exam frequently reuses these exact scenarios with slightly different constraints.
✓Platform as a Service (PaaS)Correct answer▾
Why this is correct
PaaS delivers a platform to develop, run, and manage applications. The provider manages the underlying infrastructure, operating system, and runtime, allowing the customer to focus solely on deploying code. This exactly matches the business's needs.
✗Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
IaaS provides virtualized servers, storage, and networking, but the customer must still manage the operating system, runtime, and application. The requirement is to avoid managing any infrastructure, including OS and runtime, which PaaS handles.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company needs to migrate an existing on-premises application to the cloud and requires full control over the operating system, middleware, and runtime configurations. They are willing to manage these components but want to avoid physical hardware management.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse IaaS with PaaS, thinking that 'infrastructure' includes all underlying components, or they may assume that cloud services always abstract everything, not realizing IaaS still requires OS and runtime management.
✗Software as a Service (SaaS)Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
SaaS provides ready-to-use software applications, not a platform for developing and deploying custom code. The business needs to build their own app, not use an existing one.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company wants to use a cloud-based email service, customer relationship management (CRM) tool, or office productivity suite without managing the underlying infrastructure or developing the software themselves.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may confuse 'software' with 'custom software development' or think that uploading code is similar to using a SaaS application, overlooking that SaaS delivers finished applications, not development platforms.
Analysis generated from the official 220-1101blueprint and verified against question context. The “when correct” sections are what AI assistants cite when candidates ask “what’s the difference between these options?”
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Related to this question
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Thermal Paste Application
Key term
Anything As A Service
A model where you rent any IT resource or service over the internet instead of owning it.
Key term
Platform as a Service
Platform as a Service (PaaS) is a cloud computing model that provides a complete platform for developing, running, and managing applications without the complexity of building and maintaining the underlying infrastructure.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1101 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 220-1101 exam.