CV0-004 Deployment Practice Question
A DevOps engineer is deploying a containerized application to Amazon ECS using the Fargate launch type. The application must be highly available across multiple Availability Zones and automatically scale based on CPU utilization. The engineer has already created a task definition and an Application Load Balancer. Which additional configuration is required to meet these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that Fargate tasks can be spread using placement constraints or that standalone tasks can auto-scale without a service.
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
✓
Create an ECS service with a desired count of at least two, spread across multiple subnets in different Availability Zones, and configure a target tracking scaling policy.
To achieve high availability and auto-scaling with Fargate, you need an ECS service that runs multiple tasks across AZs and a target tracking scaling policy. The service ensures tasks are rescheduled if they fail, and the scaling policy adjusts capacity based on CPU. The other options either use the wrong launch type or lack native service management.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Create an ECS service with a desired count of at least two, spread across multiple subnets in different Availability Zones, and configure a target tracking scaling policy.
Why this is correct
An ECS service with a desired count of two or more and tasks spread across multiple subnets in different AZs ensures high availability. A target tracking scaling policy based on CPU utilization automatically adjusts the number of tasks. This combination meets both the high availability and auto-scaling requirements.
- ✗
Create an ECS service with a placement constraint to spread tasks evenly across instances and enable service auto scaling based on memory.
Why it's wrong here
Placement constraints are used with the EC2 launch type, not Fargate, because Fargate abstracts the underlying instances. Also, scaling based on memory is possible but the requirement specifies CPU utilization. This option misapplies EC2-specific features and the wrong metric.
- ✗
Configure the task definition to use the EC2 launch type and place instances in an Auto Scaling group across multiple AZs.
Why it's wrong here
The scenario specifies the Fargate launch type, so switching to EC2 would require managing instances and an Auto Scaling group, contradicting the requirement. While EC2 can provide high availability and scaling, it is not the correct choice when Fargate is mandated. This option does not meet the specified launch type.
- ✗
Deploy the tasks as a standalone task using the RunTask API and enable CloudWatch alarms to trigger Lambda functions for scaling.
Why it's wrong here
Standalone tasks are not managed by a service, so they lack automatic restart and scaling. Using Lambda for scaling is possible but overly complex and not the native ECS scaling mechanism. This approach does not provide the integrated high availability and auto-scaling that an ECS service with a scaling policy offers.
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JA
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
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.