Microservices Monitoring, Logging, and Tracing 2

Question 1

In distributed tracing, what does a 'span' represent?

Accepted Answer

A single unit of work or operation within a request's journey

Answer

A span represents a single named, timed operation within a trace, such as a service call or database query.

Question 2

Which header is commonly propagated to correlate spans across services in W3C Trace Context?

Accepted Answer

traceparent

Answer

The 'traceparent' header carries trace ID, parent span ID, and flags across service boundaries.

Question 3

What is the primary purpose of a correlation ID in microservices logging?

Accepted Answer

To link all log entries belonging to a single request across services

Answer

A correlation ID is attached to every log line for a request so logs can be tied together across services.

Question 4

Which logging approach is most suitable for machine parsing and aggregation in microservices?

Accepted Answer

Structured logging in JSON format

Answer

Structured JSON logs include consistent key-value fields, making them easy to index, search, and aggregate.

Question 5

In the RED method for monitoring services, what do R, E, and D stand for?

Accepted Answer

Rate, Errors, Duration

Answer

The RED method tracks Rate (requests/sec), Errors (failed requests), and Duration (latency).

Microservices Practice Test