CV0-004 Cloud Architecture and Design Practice Question
A company runs a stateless web application on virtual machines. To handle increased traffic, they add more virtual machines and distribute incoming requests among them. What is this scaling method called?
⚠ Common exam trap
CV0-004 often tests the confusion between horizontal scaling (adding instances) and auto-scaling (the automation that adjusts capacity), causing candidates to pick auto-scaling when the question describes the scaling method itself.
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
✓
Horizontal scaling
Horizontal scaling (scaling out) adds more instances — in this case, more virtual machines — and distributes incoming requests among them, typically via a load balancer. This increases capacity by adding parallel resources rather than making a single resource larger. The scenario explicitly describes adding more VMs and distributing requests, which is the definition of horizontal scaling.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Right-sizing
Why it's wrong here
Right-sizing resizes existing instances to match observed workload, altering each VM's CPU, memory or storage; it does not add machines or distribute requests across them. Right-sizing suits eliminating over-provisioned capacity, not absorbing traffic growth through additional instances.
- ✗
Vertical scaling
Why it's wrong here
Vertical scaling increases the resources of a single virtual machine, such as more vCPU or RAM, rather than adding instances behind a load balancer. It is appropriate when an application cannot be distributed across multiple nodes and one server must handle greater load.
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Auto-scaling
Why it's wrong here
Auto-scaling adjusts capacity automatically in response to metrics such as CPU or request rate; here administrators manually add virtual machines, so no automatic policy triggers the change. Auto-scaling is correct when defined rules or schedules provision and remove instances without human intervention.
- ✓
Horizontal scaling
Why this is correct
Horizontal scaling adds more VM instances to the pool and spreads requests across them, matching the stem's stateless web tier. Vertical scaling would instead resize a single existing VM, which cannot distribute load across multiple hosts.
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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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