hardMultiple Choice
FC0-U71 Practice Question: A medium-sized company uses a customer…
A medium-sized company uses a customer relationship management (CRM) application that is accessed by 50 employees. The application is installed on a local server and uses a shared database. Recently, employees have reported that the application is becoming slow and sometimes times out. The IT staff has verified that there is no network congestion and the server has adequate resources. The application logs show that the database file has grown significantly over the past year. Which of the following is the MOST likely cause of the performance issue and the BEST solution?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates assume performance issues are always hardware-related (RAM or network) and overlook the impact of database growth, even when resource utilization appears normal.
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
✓
The database is too large; archive old records to improve performance.
The database file has grown significantly over the past year, which directly increases the time required for queries, indexing, and data retrieval. Archiving old records reduces the database size, improves query performance, and resolves timeouts without requiring hardware changes. This is a common database maintenance task for CRM systems that accumulate historical data.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The application needs to be reinstalled; reinstall it on the server.
Why it's wrong here
Reinstalling the application leaves the oversized database untouched, so the query slowdown and timeouts persist; the logs already point to database growth, not corrupted binaries. Reinstallation suits a corrupted or misconfigured installation, where the application fails to start or behaves erratically despite healthy hardware.
- ✓
The database is too large; archive old records to improve performance.
Why this is correct
A database file that has grown unchecked degrades query performance and causes timeouts even when server resources and network are adequate. Archiving old records shrinks the active dataset, directly addressing the identified database growth as the bottleneck.
- ✗
The server needs more RAM; add additional memory.
Why it's wrong here
The stem states the server has adequate resources, so adding RAM addresses nothing; the growing database file is the cause, requiring indexing, archiving or compaction. It is tempting because memory exhaustion typically slows database-backed applications, and would be correct if memory counters showed paging or cache misses.
- ✗
The network is the bottleneck; upgrade to a faster network switch.
Why it's wrong here
Network congestion has already been ruled out, and a faster switch cannot shrink a database file that has grown for a year, so timeouts persist. It is tempting because network throughput commonly causes slow shared applications, and would be correct if switch utilisation or packet loss were the measured bottleneck.
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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.