CS Cloud Computing & Services 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A startup wants to run code only when an HTTP request arrives, paying nothing while idle. Which cloud model best fits this need?
- Serverless computing (FaaS) (Correct answer)
- Dedicated bare-metal hosting
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) with reserved VMs
- On-premises virtualization
Correct answer: Serverless computing (FaaS)
Function as a Service executes code on demand and bills only for actual execution time.
Question 2: Which characteristic of cloud computing allows resources to be automatically scaled up or down based on demand?
- Rapid elasticity (Correct answer)
- Broad network access
- Resource pooling
- Measured service
Correct answer: Rapid elasticity
Rapid elasticity is the NIST characteristic describing automatic scaling to match workload demand.
Question 3: A company uses AWS for compute but keeps sensitive databases in its own data center, with workloads spanning both. What deployment model is this?
- Hybrid cloud (Correct answer)
- Community cloud
- Public cloud
- Multi-tenant cloud
Correct answer: Hybrid cloud
A hybrid cloud combines private on-premises infrastructure with public cloud resources in a single architecture.
Question 4: In the shared responsibility model for IaaS, which task is the customer's responsibility rather than the cloud provider's?
- Patching the guest operating system on virtual machines (Correct answer)
- Maintaining physical data center security
- Replacing failed hard drives
- Managing the hypervisor layer
Correct answer: Patching the guest operating system on virtual machines
In IaaS the provider secures hardware and hypervisor while the customer manages the guest OS and above.
Question 5: Which technology packages an application with its dependencies into a lightweight, portable unit sharing the host OS kernel?
- Containers (Correct answer)
- Full virtual machines
- Bare-metal provisioning
- Network-attached storage
Correct answer: Containers
Containers isolate applications while sharing the host kernel, making them lighter than full VMs.
Question 6: Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are examples of which cloud service model?
- Software as a Service (SaaS) (Correct answer)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)
- Function as a Service (FaaS)
Correct answer: Software as a Service (SaaS)
SaaS delivers complete, ready-to-use applications over the internet with no infrastructure management by the user.
Question 7: What is the primary purpose of a Content Delivery Network (CDN) in cloud architectures?
- Caching content at edge locations close to users to reduce latency (Correct answer)
- Encrypting data at rest in cloud storage
- Balancing CPU load across virtual machines
- Providing identity and access management
Correct answer: Caching content at edge locations close to users to reduce latency
CDNs replicate content to geographically distributed edge servers so users fetch it from a nearby location.
CS Cloud Computing & Services 2
A startup wants to run code only when an HTTP request arrives, paying nothing while idle.
Which cloud model best fits this need?