ITIL4F Key Concepts of ITIL 4 Practice Question
An organisation's IT service desk is receiving a high volume of calls about users being unable to log in to the payroll system following a scheduled maintenance window. According to ITIL 4, what type of record should be raised FIRST?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse the need for root cause analysis (problem management) with the immediate priority of restoring service (incident management), leading them to select option C instead of B.
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 incident record, as users are experiencing an unplanned service interruption
An incident is defined as an unplanned interruption to a service or a reduction in its quality. Since users cannot log in after the maintenance window, this is an unplanned service interruption, and ITIL 4 dictates that an incident record should be raised first to restore normal service operation as quickly as possible.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
A service request, to fulfil the users' need to access the payroll system
Why it's wrong here
Service requests are for pre-approved, routine requests (password resets, new software). An unplanned login failure is an incident, not a service request.
- ✓
An incident record, as users are experiencing an unplanned service interruption
Why this is correct
An unplanned interruption or degradation of an IT service is an incident. The immediate goal is service restoration.
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A problem record, to investigate the root cause of the login failure
Why it's wrong here
A problem record is raised to find the root cause of incidents. The first step is to raise an incident to restore service.
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A change request, to reverse the changes made during the maintenance window
Why it's wrong here
A change request is used to modify infrastructure. Reversing a change may be the solution, but the disruption itself must first be logged as an incident.
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Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 531 original ITIL4F 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 ITIL4F practice question is part of Courseiva's free PeopleCert 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 ITIL4F exam.