This CV0-004 practice question tests your understanding of operations and support. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A cloud administrator is troubleshooting a performance issue with a relational database hosted on a cloud provider. The application team reports that queries are taking much longer than usual. The administrator checks the database monitoring dashboard and sees that the queries per second are within normal ranges, but the average query latency has doubled. The database is running on a VM with 4 vCPUs and 16 GB RAM. The storage type is SSD-backed General Purpose (GP2) with provisioned 3000 IOPS. The administrator notices that the Disk I/O Wait metric is consistently above 20%. What should the administrator do to improve query performance?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Increase the provisioned IOPS or upgrade to a higher-performance storage class like Provisioned IOPS SSD.
High I/O Wait indicates that the CPU is spending significant time waiting for disk I/O to complete. Increasing storage IOPS or switching to a higher-performance storage class (e.g., Provisioned IOPS SSD) will reduce I/O latency and improve query performance. Option B directly addresses the bottleneck.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Shrink the database by archiving old data.
Why it's wrong here
Archiving might help long-term but is not an immediate solution for ongoing high I/O wait.
✓
Increase the provisioned IOPS or upgrade to a higher-performance storage class like Provisioned IOPS SSD.
Why this is correct
Raising IOPS reduces disk queue depth and I/O wait, directly addressing the performance issue.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Add more memory to the VM to increase the database cache.
Why it's wrong here
While more cache can reduce disk reads, the immediate symptom is high I/O wait, which indicates storage throughput is insufficient.
✗
Add more vCPUs to the database VM.
Why it's wrong here
More vCPUs will not help if the bottleneck is I/O; CPU utilization is likely low due to waiting.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
→Underline the problem statement mentally.
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A practitioner preparing for the CV0-004 exam encounters this exact type of scenario on the job. The correct answer here is not the most general option — it is the best answer for the specific constraint described. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Real exam questions reward reading the full scenario before eliminating options, because the constraint defines which answer fits.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which CV0-004 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
Operations and Support — This question tests Operations and Support — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Increase the provisioned IOPS or upgrade to a higher-performance storage class like Provisioned IOPS SSD. — High I/O Wait indicates that the CPU is spending significant time waiting for disk I/O to complete. Increasing storage IOPS or switching to a higher-performance storage class (e.g., Provisioned IOPS SSD) will reduce I/O latency and improve query performance. Option B directly addresses the bottleneck.
What should I do if I get this CV0-004 question wrong?
Identify which CV0-004 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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