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Quizzes > Quizzes for Business > Technology

Test Your Cloud Architecture Practice Exam Skills

Challenge Your Cloud Infrastructure Concepts and Skills

Difficulty: Moderate
Questions: 20
Learning OutcomesStudy Material
Colorful paper art representing a quiz on Cloud Architecture Practice Exam

Ready to elevate your cloud expertise? This Cloud Architecture Practice Exam invites aspiring architects to test their skills with a targeted cloud architecture quiz. You'll tackle design principles, deployment models, and scalability scenarios across 15 multiple-choice questions. Every question is fully editable in our quizzes editor so you can customize your study sessions. After finishing, explore the Cloud Platform Certification Practice Quiz or sharpen fundamentals with the Architecture Knowledge Trivia Quiz.

What does IaaS stand for in cloud computing?
Infrastructure as a Service
Platform as a Service
Software as a Service
Network as a Service
IaaS stands for Infrastructure as a Service, which provides virtualized compute, storage, and networking resources. PaaS and SaaS refer to higher-level service models, while Network as a Service is a subset of IaaS.
What is auto-scaling in cloud computing?
Automatically adjusting resource capacity based on load
Manually provisioning additional servers
Automatically patching operating systems
Scheduling backups during off-peak hours
Auto-scaling dynamically adds or removes compute resources based on demand thresholds. This ensures applications maintain performance under varying loads.
In the cloud shared responsibility model, which of these is typically managed by the cloud provider?
Physical security of data centers
Application code updates
User identity and access management
Database schema design
Cloud providers are responsible for the physical security of their data centers, including facilities and hardware. Customers handle application, data, and identity management.
Which of the following best describes a public cloud deployment?
Cloud services offered over the public internet
Dedicated cloud infrastructure on-premises
A combination of multiple private cloud providers
Edge locations owned by an organization
A public cloud offers resources and services over the public internet to multiple tenants. Private cloud refers to dedicated on-premises infrastructure.
Which term describes the ability of a system to remain operational without interruption?
High availability
Elasticity
Scalability
Cost optimization
High availability refers to systems designed for minimal downtime through redundancy and failover mechanisms. Scalability and elasticity refer to adjusting capacity, not uninterrupted operation.
Which purchasing option typically offers the greatest cost savings for predictable, long-term cloud workloads?
Reserved instances
On-demand instances
Spot instances
Dedicated hosts
Reserved instances provide significant discounts in exchange for committing to a usage term, making them ideal for predictable workloads. On-demand and spot instances have higher variability in cost.
Which cloud deployment model combines on-premises infrastructure with public cloud services?
Hybrid cloud
Community cloud
Private cloud
Edge cloud
A hybrid cloud integrates on-premises hardware with public cloud platforms to enable workload portability and flexible scaling. Private and community clouds do not inherently include public resources.
Which component distributes incoming application traffic across multiple servers?
Load balancer
API gateway
VPN gateway
Firewall
A load balancer evenly distributes network or application traffic across multiple servers to improve responsiveness and availability. Firewalls and gateways serve different security and routing functions.
What is the primary purpose of a Key Management Service (KMS) in cloud security?
Managing encryption keys centrally
Monitoring network traffic
Storing backup snapshots
Analyzing application logs
A Key Management Service securely creates, stores, and rotates encryption keys, centralizing cryptographic operations for data protection. It is not used for traffic monitoring or backups.
What distinguishes fault tolerance from high availability?
Fault tolerance continues operation without any interruption
High availability eliminates all single points of failure
Fault tolerance requires manual failover
High availability provides zero downtime
Fault tolerance ensures the system continues seamlessly in the event of component failures. High availability reduces downtime via rapid failover but may still incur brief interruptions.
Which design principle emphasizes minimizing dependencies between application components?
Loose coupling
High cohesion
Service orchestration
Monolithic design
Loose coupling reduces interdependence among components, making systems more resilient and easier to maintain. High cohesion refers to related functions grouped together within a component.
In Platform as a Service (PaaS), which responsibility shifts from the customer to the cloud provider compared to IaaS?
Managing the runtime environment and middleware
Configuring virtual networks
Maintaining underlying hardware
Monitoring billing and usage
PaaS abstracts the runtime environment and middleware management, allowing customers to focus on application code. IaaS requires customers to manage OS and middleware themselves.
What does RPO stand for in disaster recovery planning?
Recovery Point Objective
Recovery Performance Objective
Resource Protection Operation
Redundancy Planning Outline
Recovery Point Objective defines the maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time before an outage or disaster. It is separate from Recovery Time Objective (RTO).
Which compute service charges based solely on the number of function executions and execution duration?
Serverless functions
Dedicated virtual machines
Container services
Bare metal instances
Serverless functions are billed by execution count and runtime duration, without charging for idle time. Virtual machines and containers incur ongoing resource reservation costs.
Placing resources inside a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) primarily provides which benefit?
Network isolation and control
Automatic cost savings
Global content delivery
Built-in code deployment pipelines
A VPC isolates cloud resources within a private virtual network, giving customers granular control over IP ranges, subnets, and security policies. Cost savings and global delivery are separate services.
In a multi-region active-passive failover design, which component automatically redirects traffic when the primary region becomes unavailable?
DNS failover mechanism
Local load balancer
Identity provider
Auto-scaling group
DNS failover monitors endpoint health and updates DNS records to direct traffic to the passive region upon primary failure. Local load balancers operate within a single region.
Which architectural pattern best supports independent scaling and deployment of individual services?
Microservices architecture
Monolithic architecture
Layered (n-tier) architecture
Client-server architecture
Microservices break applications into loosely coupled services that can be independently developed, deployed, and scaled. Monolithic systems tie all functionalities together in a single deployable unit.
How can spot instances maximize cost savings for batch processing workloads without significantly compromising availability?
Use spot instances with an auto-scaling group and fallback to on-demand when reclaimed
Reserve spot instances for the entire project duration
Run spot instances continuously without monitoring
Combine spot instances with dedicated hosts
By placing spot instances in an auto-scaling group and configuring on-demand fallback, workloads automatically recover when spot capacity is reclaimed. This balances cost savings with reliability.
To ensure data compliance in a hybrid cloud environment, which practice is essential when transferring sensitive data between on-premises and cloud?
Use end-to-end encryption and enforce consistent governance policies
Open all ports in the firewall for speed
Rely solely on network isolation
Use basic HTTP for transfers
End-to-end encryption protects data in transit, and governance policies ensure compliance across environments. Relying only on isolation or unencrypted protocols risks exposure and regulatory violations.
According to the CAP theorem in distributed systems, if a cloud database prioritizes consistency and availability, which property must it sacrifice?
Partition tolerance
Durability
Scalability
Latency
The CAP theorem states that a distributed system cannot simultaneously guarantee consistency, availability, and partition tolerance. Choosing consistency and availability means the system cannot tolerate network partitions gracefully.
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Learning Outcomes

  1. Analyse cloud architecture design principles in real-world scenarios
  2. Evaluate cloud service models and deployment strategies
  3. Identify key components of scalable cloud infrastructure
  4. Demonstrate best practices for cloud security and compliance
  5. Apply cost-optimization techniques for cloud resources
  6. Master high availability and disaster recovery strategies

Cheat Sheet

  1. Understand Cloud Service Models - Familiarize yourself with IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS to know what each offers. Picking the right model can save time and money in your projects. Cloud Computing on Wikipedia
  2. Explore Cloud Deployment Strategies - Dive into single cloud, hybrid cloud, and multicloud setups to see how they differ. Knowing their benefits and challenges helps you design smarter architectures. AWS Deployment Strategies Guide
  3. Implement Blue - Green Deployment - Keep two identical environments so updates happen without downtime. If something breaks, you can instantly switch back. Blue - Green Deployment on Wikipedia
  4. Embrace Microservices Architecture - Break your application into bite-sized services that can scale independently. This boosts resilience and lets teams deploy features faster. Deep Dive into AWS Best Practices
  5. Leverage Cloud Elasticity - Automatically scale resources up or down as demand changes in real time. This keeps performance smooth without overspending. Deep Dive into AWS Best Practices
  6. Prioritize Cloud Security and Compliance - Lock down your environment with encryption, IAM policies, and regular audits. Staying compliant protects data and builds trust with users. AWS Security
  7. Optimize Cloud Costs - Right-size instances, buy reserved capacity, and set up auto-scaling to cut waste. Smart budgeting keeps your cloud bill under control. Cost Management on AWS
  8. Ensure High Availability - Use load balancers, failover clusters, and geo-distributed resources to keep services running. This approach minimizes downtime during unexpected events. High Availability (Wikipedia)
  9. Develop Disaster Recovery Plans - Schedule regular backups and maintain redundant systems in separate regions. Clear recovery procedures mean you bounce back faster from outages. Disaster Recovery (Wikipedia)
  10. Stay Updated on Cloud Innovations - Follow release notes, blogs, and community updates to learn about new features. Being first to adopt can give you a competitive edge. AWS What's New
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