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CV0-004 Practice Question: Migrating a monolithic application to…
A company is migrating a monolithic application to microservices on a cloud platform. The current application uses a single relational database. The migration plan involves decomposing the application into several services, each with its own database (polyglot persistence). One service handles high-volume time-series data, another handles user profiles, and a third handles transactions. The architect must ensure data consistency across services for user profile updates that affect other services. Which approach should be used to maintain data consistency without tight coupling?
⚠ Common exam trap
CompTIA often tests the distinction between eventual consistency (option B) and the saga pattern (option D), where candidates mistakenly choose eventual consistency because it sounds like a standard microservices pattern, but the question explicitly requires maintaining data consistency across services, which the saga pattern provides through compensating transactions and explicit failure handling.
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
✓
Implement a saga pattern using choreography or orchestration
The saga pattern (option D) is the correct approach because it maintains data consistency across microservices without tight coupling by breaking a distributed transaction into a series of local transactions, each with a compensating action for rollback. In this scenario, user profile updates that affect other services can be coordinated via choreography (each service emits and listens to events) or orchestration (a central coordinator manages the steps), ensuring eventual consistency while preserving service autonomy and polyglot persistence.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use distributed transactions (e.g., two-phase commit) across all services
Why it's wrong here
Distributed transactions create tight coupling and can become performance bottlenecks.
- ✗
Rely on eventual consistency with asynchronous messaging
Why it's wrong here
Eventual consistency may not be sufficient if immediate consistency is required for user profile updates.
- ✗
Keep a single shared database for all services
Why it's wrong here
A shared database contradicts the microservices principle of decentralized data management.
- ✓
Implement a saga pattern using choreography or orchestration
Why this is correct
The saga pattern coordinates local transactions across services, ensuring consistency without tight coupling.
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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.