ACE Practice Question: A load balancer is routing traffic to a VM where…
This ACE practice question tests your understanding of a load balancer is routing traffic to a vm where…. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A load balancer is routing traffic to a VM where the application process has crashed, but the VM itself is still running. What prevents the load balancer from continuing to send traffic to this instance?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
Distractor review
A Cloud Armor security policy blocking the crashed instance's IP
Cloud Armor applies rules to incoming requests from external clients — it doesn't monitor backend instance health.
Distractor review
The instance group autoscaling policy detecting the failure
Autoscaling adjusts instance count based on metrics — it doesn't directly control load balancer routing per instance health.
Distractor review
A VPC firewall rule blocking traffic to the VM
Firewall rules are static and would block traffic to all instances equally — they don't dynamically respond to application health.
Best answer
An HTTP health check configured on the backend service
HTTP health checks probe the application port. A crashed application fails the probe, causing the load balancer to stop directing traffic to that VM until it recovers.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
- Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
- Underline the problem statement mentally.
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
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Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this ACE question test?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: An HTTP health check configured on the backend service — HTTP (application-level) health checks probe the application endpoint. When the app crashes and stops responding, the health check fails, and the load balancer marks the instance unhealthy and stops sending it traffic. TCP health checks only verify the VM is reachable at the network level, not that the application is functional.
What should I do if I get this ACE question wrong?
Identify which ACE exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
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This ACE practice question is part of Courseiva's free Google Cloud 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 ACE exam.