easyMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
CV0-004 Practice Question: A cloud administrator for a large e-commerce…
A cloud administrator for a large e-commerce company receives an alert that the response time of the production web application has increased by 300% in the last hour. The application is deployed on a Kubernetes cluster with three worker nodes, each running multiple pods. The administrator checks the Kubernetes dashboard and notices that one of the worker nodes has a CPU utilization of 95%, while the other two nodes are at 40%. The pods on the overloaded node are experiencing resource throttling. The application uses a deployment with a replica count of 6, and all pods are currently running. The administrator needs to resolve the performance issue quickly and prevent future occurrences. Which of the following actions should the administrator take FIRST?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers choose to increase replica count or add nodes as a knee-jerk reaction to high CPU, but the correct first step is to isolate and redistribute the load from the overloaded node using cordon and drain, which directly addresses the immediate throttling without over-provisioning.
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
✓
Cordon and drain the overloaded node to redistribute its pods to other nodes.
C is correct because the immediate symptom is an overloaded node (95% CPU) causing resource throttling on its pods. Cordon and drain the node to safely evict its pods, allowing the Kubernetes scheduler to redistribute them to the underutilized nodes (40% CPU), which quickly resolves the performance bottleneck without adding unnecessary resources or changing the deployment configuration.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increase the replica count from 6 to 12 to distribute load across more pods.
Why it's wrong here
Increasing replicas could exacerbate the imbalance if pods continue to schedule on the overloaded node.
- ✗
Add a new worker node to the cluster to increase overall capacity.
Why it's wrong here
Adding a node takes time and does not immediately fix the current imbalance; also, existing pods won't automatically move.
- ✓
Cordon and drain the overloaded node to redistribute its pods to other nodes.
Why this is correct
This immediately relieves the overloaded node and redistributes pods, restoring performance.
- ✗
Modify the deployment to set resource requests and limits for CPU on all pods.
Why it's wrong here
This would help in future but does not immediately resolve the current performance issue.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CV0-004 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 CV0-004 exam.