Technology and Platform Analysis Flashcards
7 cards from real CMA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Technology and Platform Analysis flashcards as text
A master architect is evaluating serverless functions (FaaS) for a new workload. Which characteristic of serverless architectures poses the greatest challenge for latency-sensitive applications?
Answer: Cold start latency when a function instance is not warm
Cold starts occur when a serverless function must initialize a new container, introducing latency spikes that are problematic for latency-sensitive workloads.
In platform technology analysis, what is the purpose of a technology radar (such as ThoughtWorks Technology Radar)?
Answer: To classify technologies into adoption stages (Adopt, Trial, Assess, Hold) to guide technology choices
A technology radar categorizes technologies into rings (Adopt, Trial, Assess, Hold) to help organizations make informed decisions about adopting or retiring technologies.
Which architectural quality attribute describes a system's ability to handle increasing load by adding resources without requiring redesign of the core architecture?
Answer: Scalability
Scalability is the ability of a system to handle growing workloads by adding resources (horizontal or vertical scaling) without architectural redesign.
A CMA recommends implementing a service mesh in a microservices platform. Which capability does a service mesh primarily provide?
Answer: Infrastructure-level traffic management, observability, and security between services
A service mesh handles service-to-service communication concerns like load balancing, retries, circuit breaking, mutual TLS, and observability at the infrastructure layer.
When conducting a build-versus-buy analysis for a platform component, which factor most strongly favors building custom software?
Answer: The capability represents a unique competitive differentiator with no suitable vendor product
Building custom software is justified when the capability provides unique competitive advantage that no existing vendor product can adequately deliver.
A master architect is analyzing a platform where read and write workloads have vastly different scaling needs. Which pattern separates these concerns into distinct models?
Answer: CQRS (Command Query Responsibility Segregation)
CQRS separates read (query) and write (command) models, allowing each to be scaled, optimized, and evolved independently.
In technology platform analysis, what does 'observability' encompass beyond traditional monitoring?
Answer: The ability to understand a system's internal state through its external outputs: metrics, logs, and traces
Observability covers the three pillars—metrics, logs, and distributed traces—enabling engineers to understand system behavior and diagnose novel failure modes.