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CV0-004 Practice Question: Which THREE of the following are best practices…
Which THREE of the following are best practices for deploying applications in a cloud environment? (Choose three.)
⚠ Common exam trap
CompTIA often tests the misconception that 'keeping unused resources avoids delays' (D) is a valid cost-saving strategy, when in fact cloud environments are designed for rapid provisioning from images or snapshots, making idle resources an unnecessary expense and security risk.
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
✓
Use immutable infrastructure patterns.
Option A is correct because immutable infrastructure patterns replace servers rather than patching them in place, which makes cloud deployments reproducible, eliminates configuration drift, and allows rollback by simply redeploying a known-good image. Option B is correct because designing for horizontal scaling (adding/removing instances behind a load balancer) matches the elastic, distributed nature of cloud platforms and avoids the single-instance ceiling and downtime of vertical scaling. Option E is correct because blue/green deployment runs two identical environments and shifts traffic (e.g., via DNS or a load balancer) only after the new version is validated, minimizing downtime and enabling instant rollback. Option C is not a best practice because opening all ports in security groups violates least-privilege network access and exposes resources to attack. Option D is not a best practice because retaining unused resources wastes cost and increases the attack surface; cloud provisioning is fast enough that resources should be released and recreated as needed.
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 immutable infrastructure patterns.
Why this is correct
Immutable infrastructure replaces servers rather than mutating them in place, so every deployment ships a freshly built, identically configured image. This eliminates configuration drift, makes rollbacks deterministic, and ensures environments remain reproducible across scaling events and regions.
- ✓
Design for horizontal scaling rather than vertical.
Why this is correct
Horizontal scaling adds interchangeable instances behind a load balancer, letting capacity grow elastically and survive individual node failure. Vertical scaling hits a hard ceiling and typically requires downtime, so designing stateless, horizontally scalable components suits cloud elasticity far better.
- ✗
Open all ports in security groups to simplify connectivity.
Why it's wrong here
Opening every port removes network segmentation, exposing management and database services to the internet and violating least-privilege access. Broad rules are tempting during troubleshooting, yet the correct approach is scoped security-group rules permitting only required ports and source ranges.
- ✗
Keep unused resources to avoid reprovisioning delays.
Why it's wrong here
Retaining idle resources continues billing and enlarges the attack surface without serving traffic, and reprovisioning is automated through infrastructure as code. Keeping resources running suits short-lived workloads expecting imminent reuse, not steady-state cloud deployments governed by cost and security hygiene.
- ✓
Implement blue/green deployment to minimize downtime.
Why this is correct
Blue/green deployment maintains two identical environments, shifting traffic only after the new version passes validation, so rollback is instant. This directly satisfies the stem's availability constraint by eliminating the cutover outage that in-place upgrades cause, keeping the application continuously reachable during releases.
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JA
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.