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FC0-U71 Practice Question: A database administrator needs to ensure that a…
A database administrator needs to ensure that a transaction either fully completes or is fully rolled back. Which database property guarantees this?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse atomicity with consistency, mistakenly thinking that 'all or nothing' is about maintaining data rules, when in fact atomicity is the specific property that guarantees transactional indivisibility.
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
✓
Atomicity
Atomicity ensures that a transaction is treated as a single, indivisible unit of work: either all of its operations are committed successfully, or none are applied, and the database is rolled back to its previous state. This property directly guarantees the 'all or nothing' behavior required by the database administrator. In SQL databases, atomicity is typically enforced through transaction control statements like BEGIN TRANSACTION, COMMIT, and ROLLBACK, with the database engine managing undo logs to reverse partial changes if a failure occurs.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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Isolation
Why it's wrong here
Isolation controls concurrent transaction visibility, preventing one transaction from reading another's uncommitted changes. It would be correct when addressing dirty reads or concurrency conflicts; atomicity, not isolation, guarantees that a transaction fully completes or fully rolls back.
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Durability
Why it's wrong here
Durability guarantees committed changes survive system failure by persisting them to non-volatile storage. It would be correct when ensuring data is not lost after a crash, but it does not govern whether a transaction completes or rolls back as a unit.
- ✓
Atomicity
Why this is correct
Atomicity treats a transaction as a single indivisible unit: either every operation commits or none does, with partial changes rolled back on failure. This directly satisfies the requirement that a transaction fully complete or fully roll back, unlike consistency, isolation or durability.
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Consistency
Why it's wrong here
Consistency guarantees that a transaction moves the database from one valid state to another, preserving constraints and relationships, but it does not govern partial completion or rollback. It is tempting because consistency is a core ACID property, and it would be the correct choice when the requirement is preventing invalid data states rather than atomic all-or-nothing execution.
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on FC0-U71
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A database administrator notices that a transaction that updates two tables is failing halfway, leaving data inconsistent. Which property of ACID ensures that the database returns to its original state if the transaction fails?
hard- A.Consistency
- B.Durability
- C.Isolation
- ✓ D.Atomicity
Why D: Atomicity (option D) ensures that a transaction is treated as a single, indivisible unit of work. If any part of the transaction fails (e.g., updating the second table), the entire transaction is rolled back, and the database returns to its original state before the transaction began. This prevents partial updates that would leave data inconsistent.
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.