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CV0-004 Practice Question: A cloud operations team is troubleshooting a…
A cloud operations team is troubleshooting a performance issue with a web application hosted on a cloud platform. The application uses an auto-scaling group behind a load balancer. Users report slow response times during peak hours. Monitoring shows high CPU utilization on all instances. Which of the following should the team do first to improve performance?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse symptom (high CPU) with cause, and choose vertical scaling (Option A) or caching (Option C) instead of recognizing that the auto-scaling policy's threshold is misconfigured, which is the first and most direct control to adjust for performance under load.
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
✓
Adjust the auto-scaling policy to scale out at lower CPU threshold.
The immediate symptom is high CPU utilization on all instances during peak hours, indicating that the current instances are being overwhelmed. Adjusting the auto-scaling policy to scale out at a lower CPU threshold (e.g., from 70% to 50%) will proactively add more instances before CPU becomes saturated, distributing the load and improving response times. This directly addresses the root cause—insufficient compute capacity—without requiring architectural changes or additional services.
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 instance size of the auto-scaling group.
Why it's wrong here
Increasing instance size may help but is a vertical scaling approach; horizontal scaling is more cost-effective and elastic.
- ✗
Add a content delivery network (CDN) in front of the application.
Why it's wrong here
CDN improves static content delivery but does not reduce CPU load from dynamic requests.
- ✗
Enable caching at the database layer.
Why it's wrong here
Database caching may reduce load if the bottleneck is DB, but CPU high suggests compute-bound.
- ✓
Adjust the auto-scaling policy to scale out at lower CPU threshold.
Why this is correct
Correct. Scaling out earlier distributes workload across more instances, reducing CPU utilization and improving response times.
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Last reviewed: Jun 25, 2026
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