CCSP Cloud Application Security Practice Question
A cloud application experiences intermittent failures during peak load. Logs show database connection timeouts. Which architecture change would best address this issue?
⚠ Common exam trap
ISC2 often tests the misconception that scaling the application tier or database size alone solves connection management issues, when the real bottleneck is connection establishment overhead and pool limits.
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
✓
Implement connection pooling
Connection pooling reuses a set of established database connections, avoiding the overhead of repeatedly opening and closing connections during high concurrency. This directly resolves intermittent timeouts caused by connection exhaustion or slow connection establishment under peak load, without requiring additional infrastructure.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Implement connection pooling
Why this is correct
Connection pooling reuses established database connections instead of opening a new one per request, so the application stops exhausting the database's connection limit during peak load. This directly removes the connection-timeout constraint recorded in the logs, letting concurrent requests queue briefly rather than fail outright.
- ✗
Enable auto-scaling on the application tier
Why it's wrong here
Auto-scaling the application tier adds more consumers competing for the same fixed database connection pool, worsening the timeouts. It is tempting because horizontal scaling genuinely resolves CPU-bound application bottlenecks, but here the constraint sits at the database tier, so scaling the app tier cannot relieve it.
- ✗
Use read replicas
Why it's wrong here
Read replicas offload read queries from the primary, but connection timeouts under peak load stem from exhausted connection limits, which replicas do not expand for write traffic. It is tempting because replicas genuinely scale read-heavy workloads, yet the stem identifies connection exhaustion, not read contention.
- ✗
Increase database instance size
Why it's wrong here
A larger instance raises per-connection memory and CPU but leaves the maximum connection count largely unchanged, so timeouts persist once that ceiling is hit. It is tempting because vertical scaling genuinely helps CPU- or memory-bound databases, but the bottleneck here is concurrent connection handling, not raw compute.
Visual reference
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 934 original CCSP practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CCSP practice question is part of Courseiva's free ISC2 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 CCSP exam.