ITIL4-CDS Create, Deliver and Support Practice Question
Which concept describes the ability of a service to be restored quickly after a failure, minimizing the impact on the user?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates frequently confuse resilience with availability or reliability. While related, they often overlook that resilience specifically emphasizes the ability to withstand and recover from failure rather than just preventing downtime.
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
✓
Resilience.
Resilience refers to the ability of a service or component to withstand failures and recover quickly. In a CDS context, this is a vital design consideration. By building resilience into the service architecture, organizations ensure that minor issues do not escalate into major service disruptions, thereby maintaining continuous value delivery and protecting the business from the negative consequences of downtime.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Scalability.
Why it's wrong here
Scalability is the ability of a service to handle increased load or demand by adding resources. While important for performance, it is distinct from resilience, which specifically addresses the ability to recover from failures and maintain service continuity when components or infrastructure experience unexpected issues or downtime.
- ✓
Resilience.
Why this is correct
Resilience is the capacity of a service to withstand and quickly recover from failures. It is a critical attribute for modern services that must remain available despite infrastructure or software errors. It emphasizes designing for failure so that the overall system remains operational and reliable for the end-user.
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Maintainability.
Why it's wrong here
Maintainability refers to how easily a service can be modified or repaired. While related to resilience, it focuses on the lifecycle and ease of updates. Resilience specifically focuses on the operational outcome of surviving and recovering from failures, which is a broader concern than simply how easy updates are.
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Compatibility.
Why it's wrong here
Compatibility relates to how well different components or systems work together. It does not address the recovery from failure. Even a highly compatible system may be fragile and fail to recover from an error, meaning it lacks the resilience required for robust, reliable service delivery.
About these practice questions
One of 155 original ITIL4-CDS 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 and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official PeopleCert/AXELOS exam blueprint
This ITIL4-CDS practice question is part of Courseiva's free PeopleCert/AXELOS 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 ITIL4-CDS exam.