hardMultiple Choice
CV0-004 Practice Question: A cloud operations team is troubleshooting a…
A cloud operations team is troubleshooting a performance issue with a database that is running on a virtual machine. The database is experiencing high latency during peak hours. Metrics show that CPU and memory usage are below 50%, but disk I/O latency spikes. The database is hosted on a cloud provider's virtual machine with premium SSDs. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the disk I/O latency?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common trap is to attribute high disk I/O latency to memory pressure (paging), but since memory usage is low, the real cause is hitting the disk's IOPS ceiling.
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
✓
The disk IOPS limit is being exceeded during peak loads.
Premium SSDs have defined IOPS limits that, when exceeded during peak loads, cause disk I/O latency spikes. Since CPU and memory are below 50%, the bottleneck is at the storage layer, not compute or memory. The high latency indicates the disk queue depth is growing as requests exceed the provisioned IOPS cap, leading to queuing delays.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The OS is paging memory to disk due to insufficient RAM.
Why it's wrong here
Paging occurs when RAM is exhausted, but memory usage is below 50%, so the OS has no pressure to swap to disk. It is tempting because paging generates heavy disk I/O, yet it would coincide with high memory consumption, which the metrics contradict.
- ✗
The virtual machine's network bandwidth is saturated.
Why it's wrong here
Network saturation degrades throughput and increases response times, but it does not raise disk I/O latency on premium SSDs. It is tempting because peak-hour contention often implicates bandwidth, yet the reported symptom is specifically disk I/O latency with CPU and memory idle.
- ✓
The disk IOPS limit is being exceeded during peak loads.
Why this is correct
Premium SSDs cap provisioned IOPS, and once peak database demand exceeds that ceiling, the storage layer queues requests, producing latency spikes while CPU and memory remain under 50%. The bottleneck is storage throughput, not compute.
- ✗
The database application is CPU-bound.
Why it's wrong here
CPU-bound workloads saturate processor utilisation, yet the metrics show CPU below 50%, so the application cannot be the source of the disk latency. It is tempting because CPU contention does cause latency, but that would appear as high CPU usage rather than isolated disk I/O spikes.
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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.