hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped
FC0-U71 Practice Question: A company's email server is experiencing slow…
A company's email server is experiencing slow performance. The IT administrator notices high disk I/O wait times. Which component is most likely bottlenecked?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse high disk I/O wait with a CPU bottleneck, because the CPU appears busy in monitoring tools, but iowait specifically indicates the CPU is stalled waiting for storage, not that it is processing at capacity.
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
✓
Storage
High disk I/O wait times indicate that the storage subsystem is struggling to keep up with read/write requests, causing the CPU to idle while waiting for data from the disk. This is a classic symptom of a storage bottleneck, not a CPU, network, or memory issue.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
CPU
Why it's wrong here
High disk I/O wait does not necessarily indicate CPU bottleneck; CPU may be idle waiting for disk.
- ✓
Storage
Why this is correct
High disk I/O wait suggests that the storage subsystem (HDD/SSD) is unable to keep up with requests.
- ✗
Network
Why it's wrong here
Network bottleneck would show high network latency or packet loss, not disk I/O wait.
- ✗
RAM
Why it's wrong here
Low RAM can cause swapping, but disk I/O wait specifically points to storage speed.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This FC0-U71 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 FC0-U71 exam.