PK0-005 Practice Question: Basics of IT Infrastructure and IT Project Management
A project manager is planning the deployment of a new web application. The IT team has identified the following requirements: the application must be accessible 24/7, handle traffic spikes, and maintain session persistence. Which TWO infrastructure components should the project manager include in the design to meet these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
The PK0-005 exam often tests the distinction between infrastructure components that handle compute scaling versus those that handle content delivery or data persistence; the trap here is that candidates may confuse a CDN's caching capability with the need for dynamic web server scaling and session stickiness, or assume that a single large server is sufficient for high availability.
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
✓
An auto-scaling group of web servers
An auto-scaling group of web servers (A) ensures the application can handle traffic spikes by automatically adding or removing instances based on demand, supporting 24/7 availability. A load balancer with session affinity (E) distributes traffic across the web servers while maintaining session persistence, ensuring that a user's requests are consistently routed to the same server. Together, these components address all three requirements: high availability, scalability, and session stickiness.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
An auto-scaling group of web servers
Why this is correct
Auto-scaling groups automatically add or remove web server instances based on demand, which handles traffic spikes. When combined with a load balancer, they also support session persistence.
- ✗
A content delivery network (CDN)
Why it's wrong here
A CDN caches static content to improve load times and reduce server load, but it does not handle dynamic session persistence or traffic spikes for the application itself.
- ✗
A single web server with a large instance type
Why it's wrong here
A single web server is a single point of failure and cannot handle traffic spikes or maintain session persistence across multiple servers.
- ✗
A database cluster with replication
Why it's wrong here
A database cluster provides data redundancy and availability, but does not directly handle web traffic spikes or session persistence at the application layer.
- ✓
A load balancer with session affinity
Why this is correct
A load balancer distributes traffic and with session affinity (sticky sessions) ensures session persistence. It also improves availability by routing away from failed servers.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PK0-005 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 PK0-005 exam.