CV0-004 Operations and Support Practice Question
A cloud operations team manages a containerized microservices application running on an Amazon EKS cluster. During peak hours, the team observes that pods are frequently being terminated and restarted, and node CPU utilization is consistently above 90 percent. The team wants to automatically scale the number of pods based on CPU utilization while ensuring the cluster has enough nodes to schedule the pods. Which combination of actions should the team take to meet these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse pod-level scaling with node-level scaling, or assuming that a generic Auto Scaling group policy can replace the Kubernetes Cluster Autoscaler for EKS node management.
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
✓
Configure a Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA) to scale pods based on CPU utilization, and enable the Kubernetes Cluster Autoscaler to adjust the number of nodes in the node group.
The Horizontal Pod Autoscaler scales the number of pod replicas based on CPU utilization, directly handling increased application load. The Cluster Autoscaler adjusts the node group size when pods cannot be scheduled due to resource constraints, ensuring sufficient compute capacity. Using both together provides a complete scaling solution for the EKS cluster, addressing both pod and node levels. Other options either scale only one dimension or use less integrated mechanisms that do not respond correctly to pod scheduling needs.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable the Kubernetes Horizontal Pod Autoscaler with a target CPU utilization and configure an AWS Auto Scaling group with a target tracking scaling policy based on the average CPU utilization of the nodes.
Why it's wrong here
While the Horizontal Pod Autoscaler scales pods correctly, using an EC2 Auto Scaling group target tracking policy based on node CPU does not integrate with Kubernetes scheduling. The Cluster Autoscaler is purpose-built to add nodes when pods are pending due to insufficient resources, whereas a generic Auto Scaling group policy may add nodes unnecessarily or not respond to pod scheduling failures. This makes the solution less efficient and not aligned with EKS best practices.
- ✓
Configure a Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (HPA) to scale pods based on CPU utilization, and enable the Kubernetes Cluster Autoscaler to adjust the number of nodes in the node group.
Why this is correct
The Horizontal Pod Autoscaler automatically adjusts the number of pod replicas based on observed CPU utilization, directly addressing the pod scaling requirement. The Cluster Autoscaler adjusts the desired capacity of the node group when pods cannot be scheduled due to insufficient resources, ensuring nodes are added during peak load. Together they provide both pod-level and node-level elasticity, which is the correct operational approach for this scenario.
- ✗
Create an Amazon CloudWatch alarm that triggers an AWS Lambda function to call the EKS UpdateNodegroupConfig API to increase the desired size of the node group when CPU exceeds a threshold.
Why it's wrong here
This approach only scales nodes and does not scale the number of pod replicas, so the application may still be overwhelmed. Using a custom Lambda function to adjust node group size is more complex and less responsive than the native Cluster Autoscaler, which reacts to unschedulable pods. It also does not address pod-level scaling based on CPU utilization as required.
- ✗
Deploy a Vertical Pod Autoscaler (VPA) to adjust CPU and memory requests for each pod, and use AWS Application Auto Scaling to add more nodes to the node group.
Why it's wrong here
The Vertical Pod Autoscaler changes resource requests and limits for existing pods, often requiring pod restarts, and does not increase the number of pod replicas to handle increased load. AWS Application Auto Scaling is designed for services like DynamoDB, ECS, and Lambda, not for directly managing EKS node groups. This combination does not provide the horizontal pod scaling or node scaling required here.
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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.