CV0-004 Troubleshooting Practice Question
A cloud engineer notices that an application is running slower than expected. Monitoring shows that the CPU utilization is consistently below 30%, but memory usage is at 95%. Which of the following is the most likely cause of the performance issue?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates often associate performance issues solely with CPU or network bottlenecks, overlooking the severe impact of memory exhaustion and disk swapping, which can masquerade as a slow application with ample CPU headroom.
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
✓
Insufficient memory causing swapping to disk
When memory usage is at 95% and CPU utilization is low, the system is likely thrashing—the operating system is forced to page memory to disk (swap) to free RAM. Disk I/O is orders of magnitude slower than RAM, so even with idle CPU, the application stalls waiting for swap operations. This explains the performance degradation despite low CPU load.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Insufficient disk space for application logs
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect; disk space would cause write errors, not general slowness.
- ✓
Insufficient memory causing swapping to disk
Why this is correct
Correct; high memory usage leads to swapping, slowing performance.
- ✗
Network bandwidth saturation
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect; no mention of network issues.
- ✗
CPU contention due to overprovisioning
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect; CPU utilization is low, so contention is unlikely.
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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.