CV0-004 Deployment Practice Question
A company is deploying a web application on AWS using an Application Load Balancer (ALB) and an Auto Scaling group. The application must handle sudden traffic spikes without manual intervention. The engineer needs to configure the Auto Scaling group to scale based on the number of requests per target. Which CloudWatch metric should be used as the basis for the scaling policy?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that CPU utilization is always the best scaling metric, when in fact request-based metrics can be more directly tied to demand for web applications.
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
✓
ALB RequestCountPerTarget
The ALB RequestCountPerTarget metric directly measures the average request load per instance, making it the most appropriate for scaling based on request volume. It allows the Auto Scaling group to add or remove instances proportionally to traffic, ensuring the application can handle spikes. Other metrics like CPU or connections may not accurately reflect request rate.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
ALB ActiveConnectionCount
Why it's wrong here
ActiveConnectionCount measures the number of concurrent active connections, which can indicate load but does not directly represent the number of requests. A single connection can carry many requests, so this metric may not accurately reflect request rate. Scaling on connections could be less responsive to sudden increases in request rate.
- ✗
Auto Scaling Group DesiredCapacity
Why it's wrong here
DesiredCapacity is a property of the Auto Scaling group that you set, not a metric that reflects load. It cannot be used as a basis for scaling policies because it is the output of scaling decisions, not an input. Using it would create a circular dependency and not respond to actual traffic.
- ✓
ALB RequestCountPerTarget
Why this is correct
RequestCountPerTarget is a metric emitted by the Application Load Balancer that measures the average number of requests received per target (e.g., EC2 instance) over a specified period. Scaling based on this metric directly ties capacity to actual demand, allowing the Auto Scaling group to add instances when request load increases, ensuring responsive scaling during traffic spikes.
- ✗
EC2 CPUUtilization
Why it's wrong here
CPUUtilization reflects the compute load on instances but may not correlate directly with request volume, especially if the application is I/O-bound or has varying request processing costs. Scaling on CPU could lag behind sudden spikes in request count, leading to degraded performance. The requirement specifically asks for scaling based on requests per target, not CPU.
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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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