CV0-004 Cloud Architecture and Design Practice Question
A company deploys a stateless web application across two AWS Availability Zones behind a load balancer. This design primarily improves which characteristic?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse high availability with scalability; multi-AZ improves availability, while scalability is about handling growth, often achieved via Auto Scaling.
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
✓
High availability
Deploying a stateless web application across two AWS Availability Zones behind a load balancer primarily improves high availability. If one AZ fails, the load balancer routes traffic to the healthy AZ, ensuring the application remains accessible. This design eliminates a single point of failure.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Cost efficiency
Why it's wrong here
Cost efficiency concerns minimising spend, yet running instances in two Availability Zones typically increases cost. The design's purpose is resilience: if one zone fails, the load balancer routes traffic to the surviving zone. Cost efficiency would be correct if the stem described rightsizing, reserved instances, or spot capacity.
- ✓
High availability
Why this is correct
Spreading the stateless application across two Availability Zones behind a load balancer removes a single point of failure. If one zone fails, the load balancer routes traffic to the surviving zone, so the design primarily improves high availability rather than scalability, elasticity or durability.
- ✗
Scalability
Why it's wrong here
Scalability concerns handling growing load, not surviving an Availability Zone failure. Spreading stateless instances across two zones behind a load balancer delivers resilience: if one zone fails, traffic shifts to the other, maintaining availability. Scalability would be the answer if the stem described adding capacity to meet demand.
- ✗
Security
Why it's wrong here
Security controls access and protects data; multi-AZ placement does not. Distributing instances across two Availability Zones behind a load balancer provides fault tolerance, so the application survives a zone outage. Security would be correct if the stem described encryption, IAM policies, or network segmentation.
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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
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