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CCSP Practice Question: Designing a multi-tier application in the cloud
A company is designing a multi-tier application in the cloud. The web tier must automatically scale based on CPU utilization, while the database tier should remain fixed to maintain data consistency. Which architectural pattern best meets these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
ISC2 often tests the misconception that auto-scaling should apply uniformly to all tiers, but the trap here is that candidates forget the database tier requires stateful consistency and cannot scale horizontally without introducing eventual consistency or complex distributed transactions.
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
✓
Horizontal auto-scaling for the web tier and a fixed database tier
It separates the stateless web tier, which can safely scale horizontally using auto-scaling groups triggered by CPU utilization thresholds, from the stateful database tier, which must remain fixed to avoid consistency issues such as split-brain or replication lag. Horizontal scaling adds or removes identical web server instances without affecting session state, while a fixed database tier preserves ACID properties and prevents conflicts from concurrent writes across multiple database nodes.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Horizontal auto-scaling for the web tier and a fixed database tier
Why this is correct
This pattern separates stateless and stateful components appropriately.
- ✗
Manual scaling for both tiers
Why it's wrong here
Manual scaling does not provide the required automatic response.
- ✗
Vertical scaling of all tiers
Why it's wrong here
Vertical scaling limits scalability and is less cost-effective.
- ✗
Single-tier architecture with auto-scaling
Why it's wrong here
Single-tier mixes concerns and complicates scaling.
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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.