CV0-004 Cloud Architecture and Design Practice Question
A cloud engineer is designing a disaster recovery plan with an RTO of 2 hours and RPO of 15 minutes. Which strategy best meets these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is that candidates focus only on RTO and pick pilot light or cold standby as 'cheaper,' ignoring that the 15-minute RPO rules out hourly or daily backups — the RPO requirement is the deciding constraint here.
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
✓
Warm standby with continuous replication
A warm standby with continuous replication keeps a scaled-down but fully functional copy of the environment running in a secondary region, with data replicated continuously. This allows failover within minutes, easily meeting the 15-minute RPO, and the standby can be scaled up to full capacity within the 2-hour RTO. It balances cost and recovery speed better than the other options for these specific targets.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Pilot light with hourly snapshots
Why it's wrong here
Hourly snapshots give an RPO of up to 60 minutes, exceeding the 15-minute requirement, though the pilot-light RTO can fit within 2 hours. It is tempting because pilot light is a common middle-tier DR pattern, but it is correct only when the RPO tolerance is an hour or more.
- ✓
Warm standby with continuous replication
Why this is correct
Warm standby with continuous replication keeps a scaled-down environment running and replicates data continuously, giving an RPO near zero and failover well within two hours. This satisfies both the 15-minute RPO and 2-hour RTO at lower cost than active-active.
- ✗
Cold standby with daily backups
Why it's wrong here
Cold standby with daily backups yields an RPO of up to 24 hours, missing the 15-minute requirement, and restoring infrastructure typically exceeds the 2-hour RTO. It is tempting because it is the cheapest option, but it suits only workloads tolerating day-old data and lengthy recovery.
- ✗
Active-active across regions
Why it's wrong here
Active-active across regions delivers an RTO near zero and an RPO near zero, far exceeding the stated 2-hour and 15-minute targets, so it over-engineers the solution at unnecessary cost. It is tempting because it maximises availability, but it is the right choice only when the business demands near-zero downtime and data loss.
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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 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.