EX280 Networking And Network Policies Practice Question
A developer deploys a headless service (ClusterIP set to None) in OpenShift. What is the primary characteristic of a headless service?
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
✓
It does not allocate a ClusterIP, and DNS returns the individual pod IPs directly.
Headless services do not allocate a cluster IP; instead, DNS returns the IP addresses of the individual pods backing the service directly.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
It prevents any external routes from binding to the service.
Why it's wrong here
Routes can still reference services regardless of whether they are headless, though pod endpoints are targeted directly.
- ✗
It routes traffic exclusively via NodePort across worker nodes.
Why it's wrong here
Headless services do not use NodePorts.
- ✓
It does not allocate a ClusterIP, and DNS returns the individual pod IPs directly.
Why this is correct
Headless services facilitate direct peer discovery by resolving to pod IPs via DNS.
- ✗
It provisions an external cloud load balancer automatically.
Why it's wrong here
Cloud load balancers require LoadBalancer service types.
About these practice questions
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed August 2026 · checked against the official Red Hat exam blueprint
This EX280 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Red Hat 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 EX280 exam.