Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate (ACA) Cloud Computing — Questions and Answers
Question 1: MaxCompute is a general purpose, fully managed, multi-tenancy data processing platform for large-scale data warehousing, and it is mainly used for storage and computing of batch structured data. Which of the following is not a use case for MaxCompute?
- Date Warehouse (Correct answer)
- Real-time Stream Processing
- ETL (Extract, Transform, Load)
- Data Analysis and Mining
Correct answer: Date Warehouse
Explanation: <br> MaxCompute is primarily used for ETL (Extract, Transform, Load), data analysis and mining, and real-time stream processing tasks. While it can support data warehousing activities to some extent, it is not typically the primary use case for MaxCompute. Data warehousing solutions may involve other technologies or specialized platforms tailored specifically for data warehousing purposes.
Question 2: What is the primary objective of object storage service in Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate?
- To ensure competence and proficiency in core object storage service concepts (Correct answer)
- To replace practical experience entirely
- To limit access to the profession
- To generate revenue for testing organizations
Correct answer: To ensure competence and proficiency in core object storage service concepts
The primary objective of object storage service knowledge is to ensure practitioners have the competence and proficiency needed to perform effectively and safely in their professional roles.
Question 3: What is a best practice in Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate object storage service?
- Any practice that is easy to implement
- The cheapest available approach
- A method or technique recognized as superior based on evidence and expert consensus (Correct answer)
- A practice used only by large organizations
Correct answer: A method or technique recognized as superior based on evidence and expert consensus
Best practices are methods, techniques, or approaches that are recognized through evidence, research, and expert consensus as producing superior results and are recommended for adoption.
Question 4: What is the maximum number of AccessKey pairs a single RAM user can have active simultaneously?
- 10
- 5
- 1
- 2 (Correct answer)
Correct answer: 2
Each RAM user can have a maximum of 2 AccessKey pairs at the same time, allowing key rotation without service interruption.
Question 5: In Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate, what is sampling bias?
- Randomly selecting participants from the entire population
- Selecting a perfectly representative sample
- A systematic error where some members of a population are more likely to be selected than others (Correct answer)
- Using the largest possible sample size
Correct answer: A systematic error where some members of a population are more likely to be selected than others
Sampling bias occurs when the method of selecting participants systematically favors certain characteristics over others, resulting in a sample that does not accurately represent the target population.
Question 6: In Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate, what role does continuing education play in cloud monitoring?
- To replace initial certification requirements
- To prevent professionals from advancing in their careers
- To increase testing frequency for compliance purposes
- To keep professionals current with evolving standards, technologies, and best practices (Correct answer)
Correct answer: To keep professionals current with evolving standards, technologies, and best practices
Continuing education ensures professionals stay current with new developments, evolving standards, and emerging best practices in their field, maintaining competence throughout their careers.
Question 7: When using E-MapReduce (EMR) on Alibaba Cloud, where is it recommended to store large datasets to reduce costs and decouple storage from compute?
- On a dedicated RDS instance
- On EMR worker node local SSDs only
- Directly on EMR master node local disks
- On Alibaba Cloud OSS (Object Storage Service) (Correct answer)
Correct answer: On Alibaba Cloud OSS (Object Storage Service)
Best practice with EMR is to store large datasets on OSS, allowing you to scale compute clusters independently, shut them down when idle, and avoid paying for persistent local storage.
Question 8: What is a best practice in Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate load balancing?
- Any practice that is easy to implement
- A method or technique recognized as superior based on evidence and expert consensus (Correct answer)
- The cheapest available approach
- A practice used only by large organizations
Correct answer: A method or technique recognized as superior based on evidence and expert consensus
Best practices are methods, techniques, or approaches that are recognized through evidence, research, and expert consensus as producing superior results and are recommended for adoption.
Question 9: In a typical Alibaba Cloud big data pipeline, what role does Log Service (SLS) play?
- Centralized log collection, storage, querying, and real-time analysis of machine-generated data (Correct answer)
- Columnar storage for analytics
- Hadoop cluster management
- Data visualization
Correct answer: Centralized log collection, storage, querying, and real-time analysis of machine-generated data
Log Service (SLS) is Alibaba Cloud's platform for collecting, storing, indexing, and analyzing log and metric data from applications, servers, and services in real time.
Question 10: A large shopping mall deploys a new video surveillance system. The five-floor building in which the mall is located installed 35 HD cameras to monitor the major exits. The surveillance system is deployed on an ECS instance, which has four 2 TB data disks to store video data. However, video data grows rapidly and the engineers find that the ECS will run out of storage space within 2 weeks. <br><br> In this case, _____________ product is thought to be the best solution for addressing the storage challenge while ensuring quick access to historical video data when needed.
- Container Service
- ECS
- OSS (Correct answer)
- CDN
Correct answer: OSS
Explanation: <br> OSS is the best solution because it provides scalable and durable storage for rapidly growing video data, ensuring quick access to historical footage when needed.
Question 11: Which approach is most effective for mastering object storage service in Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate?
- Studying only immediately before examinations
- Combining theoretical study with practical application and regular review (Correct answer)
- Memorizing textbook definitions without understanding
- Relying solely on on-the-job experience
Correct answer: Combining theoretical study with practical application and regular review
The most effective approach combines theoretical understanding with practical application, reinforced by regular review and assessment, enabling deeper comprehension and long-term retention.
Question 12: In Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate, why is auto scaling knowledge important for professional certification?
- It is only required for administrative purposes
- It has no practical relevance to daily work
- It is important only for entry-level positions
- It demonstrates competence and ensures practitioners meet established standards (Correct answer)
Correct answer: It demonstrates competence and ensures practitioners meet established standards
Professional certification in specific knowledge areas demonstrates that practitioners have met established competency standards, ensuring quality of service and public protection.
Question 13: What is the main advantage of using Hologres over MaxCompute for analytics workloads?
- Hologres provides sub-second interactive query latency, whereas MaxCompute is optimized for batch processing (Correct answer)
- Hologres has higher data storage limits
- Hologres is cheaper for batch ETL jobs
- Hologres supports more programming languages
Correct answer: Hologres provides sub-second interactive query latency, whereas MaxCompute is optimized for batch processing
Hologres is purpose-built for real-time interactive analytics with sub-second query latency, while MaxCompute is optimized for large-scale batch data processing jobs.
Question 14: In Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate, what is the purpose of an audit trail in information systems?
- To track employee personal social media usage
- To increase system processing speed
- To maintain a chronological record of system activities and changes (Correct answer)
- To reduce storage requirements
Correct answer: To maintain a chronological record of system activities and changes
An audit trail creates a chronological record of all system activities, including who accessed the system, what changes were made, and when, supporting accountability and compliance.
Question 15: In Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate, what is the primary benefit of implementing automated cloud computing basics?
- Increasing manual processing requirements
- Eliminating the need for skilled professionals
- Reducing quality standards
- Increased efficiency, accuracy, and consistency in operations (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Increased efficiency, accuracy, and consistency in operations
Automation improves operational efficiency by reducing human error, increasing processing speed, ensuring consistency, and freeing professionals to focus on tasks requiring human judgment.
Question 16: Which Alibaba Cloud service is used to collect, subscribe to, and distribute real-time message streams, similar to Apache Kafka?
- DataHub (Correct answer)
- EventBridge
- Log Service (SLS)
- Message Service (MNS)
Correct answer: DataHub
DataHub is Alibaba Cloud's real-time data ingestion and distribution service that acts as a pub/sub message bus for streaming data, similar to Apache Kafka.
Question 17: When odpscmd is used to connect to a project in MaxCompute, the command ______ can be executed to view the size of the space occupied by table table_a.
- show table table_a;
- analyze table table_a;
- desc table_a;
- size table_a; (Correct answer)
Correct answer: size table_a;
Explanation: <br> In MaxCompute, when using odpscmd to connect to a project, the command "size table_a;" can be executed to view the size of the space occupied by table table_a. This command provides information about the storage consumption of the specified table, helping users to monitor and manage their data resources effectively.
Question 18: Which Alibaba Cloud service provides a fully managed platform for building, training, and deploying machine learning models?
- Quick BI
- Machine Learning Platform for AI (PAI) (Correct answer)
- MaxCompute
- DataWorks
Correct answer: Machine Learning Platform for AI (PAI)
Platform for AI (PAI) is Alibaba Cloud's end-to-end machine learning platform covering data preparation, model training, evaluation, and online/batch inference deployment.
Question 19: Which backup strategy in Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate provides the most comprehensive data protection?
- Storing all data on a single device
- Regular incremental backups combined with periodic full backups (Correct answer)
- Printing all records on paper only
- Backing up data only once a year
Correct answer: Regular incremental backups combined with periodic full backups
A combination of regular incremental backups (capturing changes) and periodic full backups provides comprehensive data protection, balancing storage efficiency with recovery capability.
Question 20: What is the relationship between theory and practice in Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate virtual private cloud?
- Theory and practice are completely unrelated
- Practice is only important; theory is unnecessary
- Theory provides the foundation and framework that guides effective practical application (Correct answer)
- Theory replaces the need for any practical experience
Correct answer: Theory provides the foundation and framework that guides effective practical application
Theory and practice are complementary: theoretical knowledge provides the conceptual framework and understanding that guides effective, evidence-based practical application in professional settings.
Question 21: What is the primary objective of load balancing in Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate?
- To generate revenue for testing organizations
- To ensure competence and proficiency in core load balancing concepts (Correct answer)
- To limit access to the profession
- To replace practical experience entirely
Correct answer: To ensure competence and proficiency in core load balancing concepts
The primary objective of load balancing knowledge is to ensure practitioners have the competence and proficiency needed to perform effectively and safely in their professional roles.
Question 22: Which approach is most effective for mastering load balancing in Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate?
- Memorizing textbook definitions without understanding
- Relying solely on on-the-job experience
- Combining theoretical study with practical application and regular review (Correct answer)
- Studying only immediately before examinations
Correct answer: Combining theoretical study with practical application and regular review
The most effective approach combines theoretical understanding with practical application, reinforced by regular review and assessment, enabling deeper comprehension and long-term retention.
Question 23: Which RAM policy element is used to specify the Alibaba Cloud resource an action applies to?
- Resource (Correct answer)
- Effect
- Action
- Condition
Correct answer: Resource
The Resource element in a RAM policy uses an ARN (Alibaba Cloud Resource Name) format to identify the specific resource the policy statement applies to.
Question 24: Which Alibaba Cloud feature allows you to deploy an ACK application across multiple regions for disaster recovery?
- ACK Federation with multi-cluster management via ARMS
- ACK built-in geo-replication with automatic failover
- Alibaba Cloud Multi-Region Kubernetes Federation (using YAML replication across clusters)
- Global Traffic Manager (GTM) combined with independent ACK clusters per region (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Global Traffic Manager (GTM) combined with independent ACK clusters per region
Multi-region ACK deployments typically use Global Traffic Manager (GTM) or Alibaba Cloud DNS for traffic routing across independently deployed ACK clusters in different regions.
Question 25: What does system integration mean in Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate elastic computing service?
- Disabling connections between departments
- Operating each system independently without data sharing
- Connecting different systems so they can work together and share data seamlessly (Correct answer)
- Replacing all systems with a single application
Correct answer: Connecting different systems so they can work together and share data seamlessly
System integration connects different technology systems to work together seamlessly, enabling data sharing, reducing redundancy, and improving workflow efficiency across the organization.
Question 26: What is the primary consideration when implementing new technology in Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate?
- Choosing based on brand popularity alone
- Selecting the most expensive option available
- Implementing without user input or testing
- Ensuring compatibility with existing systems and meeting user requirements (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Ensuring compatibility with existing systems and meeting user requirements
Successful technology implementation requires ensuring compatibility with existing infrastructure, meeting actual user needs, providing adequate training, and following a structured deployment plan.
Question 27: What is the difference between qualitative and quantitative research in Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate?
- Quantitative cannot be used in social sciences
- There is no meaningful difference between them
- Qualitative is always more rigorous than quantitative
- Qualitative explores experiences and meanings; quantitative measures and counts numerical data (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Qualitative explores experiences and meanings; quantitative measures and counts numerical data
Qualitative research explores experiences, perceptions, and meanings through methods like interviews and observation. Quantitative research measures variables numerically through surveys, experiments, and statistical analysis.
Question 28: In Alibaba Cloud RAM, what does the wildcard character '*' mean when used in the Action element of a policy?
- It grants or denies all actions for the specified service (Correct answer)
- It restricts the action to read-only operations
- It applies the policy only to the root account
- It applies the policy globally across all regions
Correct answer: It grants or denies all actions for the specified service
Using '*' in the Action element matches all actions for the targeted service or across all services, effectively granting or denying full access.
Question 29: In Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate, why is load balancing knowledge important for professional certification?
- It is only required for administrative purposes
- It demonstrates competence and ensures practitioners meet established standards (Correct answer)
- It has no practical relevance to daily work
- It is important only for entry-level positions
Correct answer: It demonstrates competence and ensures practitioners meet established standards
Professional certification in specific knowledge areas demonstrates that practitioners have met established competency standards, ensuring quality of service and public protection.
Question 30: What is the primary consideration when implementing new technology in Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate?
- Selecting the most expensive option available
- Implementing without user input or testing
- Choosing based on brand popularity alone
- Ensuring compatibility with existing systems and meeting user requirements (Correct answer)
Correct answer: Ensuring compatibility with existing systems and meeting user requirements
Successful technology implementation requires ensuring compatibility with existing infrastructure, meeting actual user needs, providing adequate training, and following a structured deployment plan.
Question 31: Your website has a high volume of traffic and sudden spikes for a very short time. In this scenario, ______________ can manage traffic peak efficiently and maintain a consistent user experience.
- Server Load Balancer
- Auto Scaling (Correct answer)
- VPC
- RDS
Correct answer: Auto Scaling
Explanation: <br> Auto Scaling automatically adjusts the number of ECS instances based on changes in demand or conditions. During sudden spikes in traffic, Auto Scaling can quickly provision additional instances to handle the increased load. This ensures that the system can efficiently manage traffic peaks and maintain a consistent user experience by dynamically scaling resources up or down as needed.
Alibaba Cloud Certified Associate (ACA) Cloud Computing
The ACA Cloud Computing certification validates foundational knowledge of Alibaba Cloud services including compute, storage, networking, databases, and security. It is designed for engineers and architects who work with or plan to deploy Alibaba Cloud solutions.
Exam Rules
- You can skip questions and return to them later
- Flag questions for review before submitting
- No feedback shown until you submit the entire exam
- Unanswered questions count as wrong — answer everything
- 10 pretest questions are mixed in and don't affect your score
- Timer auto-submits when time runs out
- Your progress is auto-saved every 30 seconds