easyMultiple Choice
CV0-004 Practice Question: Experiencing latency issues when accessing a…
A company is experiencing latency issues when accessing a cloud-based application. The cloud administrator runs a traceroute and notices high latency at the ISP's edge router. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
CompTIA often tests the distinction between latency caused by network infrastructure (ISP) versus application or server performance issues, and the trap here is that candidates may attribute high latency to internal misconfigurations (like firewalls or load balancers) when the traceroute clearly isolates the problem to an external hop.
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
✓
An internet service provider (ISP) issue is degrading the WAN connection
High latency at the ISP's edge router indicates that the bottleneck is occurring on the WAN link between the company's network and the cloud provider, which is under the ISP's control. This is a classic symptom of an ISP issue, such as congestion, routing problems, or a degraded physical link, directly impacting the WAN connection. The traceroute output localizes the latency to the ISP's infrastructure, not to the company's internal network or the cloud application's resources.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
An internet service provider (ISP) issue is degrading the WAN connection
Why this is correct
Traceroute showing high latency at the ISP's edge router localises the delay to the provider's network, outside the company's control. The WAN connection is degraded there, so the application itself and internal infrastructure are not the bottleneck.
- ✗
A misconfigured firewall rule is dropping packets
Why it's wrong here
A firewall dropping packets typically causes timeouts, resets or connection failures rather than the elevated latency observed at the ISP edge router. Firewall rule troubleshooting suits diagnosing blocked or refused traffic, not latency localised to a provider's routing path.
- ✗
The load balancer is sending traffic to unhealthy instances
Why it's wrong here
High latency at the ISP's edge router indicates a provider-side routing or peering problem, not unhealthy backend instances, which would show as connection failures or errors at the load balancer. Health-check routing suits diagnosing failed or degraded targets behind the load balancer.
- ✗
The virtual machine hosting the application is under-provisioned
Why it's wrong here
High latency at the ISP edge router indicates a network path problem, not compute contention; an under-provisioned VM would show high CPU or memory on the host, not elevated hop times. Under-provisioning is the right diagnosis when application response times degrade while traceroute shows normal latency across all hops.
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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.