hardMultiple Choice
CV0-004 Practice Question: A company deploys a multi-tier application in a…
A company deploys a multi-tier application in a public cloud. The web tier uses an auto scaling group across multiple availability zones. The database tier runs on a single large VM. The application experiences intermittent slowdowns during peak load. Which of the following is the BEST long-term solution?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to assume scaling the web tier (Option D) or vertically scaling the database (Option C) is sufficient, but CompTIA tests the understanding that the database tier is the bottleneck and requires a horizontally scalable, managed solution for long-term reliability and performance.
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
✓
Migrate the database to a managed database service with read replicas
The database tier is a single point of failure and a performance bottleneck during peak load. Migrating to a managed database service with read replicas offloads read-heavy traffic, improves scalability, and provides automatic failover, addressing both performance and availability issues. This is a long-term solution that aligns with cloud best practices for multi-tier applications.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Migrate the database to a managed database service with read replicas
Why this is correct
A managed database service with read replicas offloads read traffic from the single large VM, removing the database tier as the bottleneck during peak load. Auto scaling already handles the web tier, so the persistent constraint is the non-scalable database, which this migration addresses long term.
- ✗
Add a load balancer in front of the database tier
Why it's wrong here
A load balancer distributes connections across multiple backends; with a single database VM it adds a hop and no capacity, leaving the database as the bottleneck. Load balancing the database tier is correct once the database itself is replicated across several nodes.
- ✗
Upgrade the database VM to a larger instance type
Why it's wrong here
Vertical scaling raises the ceiling of one VM but leaves a single point of contention; peak-load slowdowns stem from concurrent connection and I/O limits that a bigger instance only postpones. It is tempting because resizing is quick and needs no application change, and it would suit a workload whose bottleneck is genuinely CPU or memory bound on one host.
- ✗
Increase the number of web servers in the auto scaling group
Why it's wrong here
Adding web servers multiplies application instances, yet each still funnels every query through the same single database VM, so the bottleneck persists. It is tempting because the auto scaling group makes horizontal scaling trivial, and it would be right if the web tier itself were saturating CPU during peaks.
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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.