Observability stack quiz
Related document: Observability stack
1. Which statement should guide a new Loki deployment?
- A) SimpleScalable is the permanent default for all new deployments
- B) SimpleScalable is deprecated and scheduled for removal in 4.0; evaluate alternatives
- C) Monolithic cannot use object storage
- D) Three replicas automatically guarantee AZ isolation
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Answer: B
The read/write/backend split describes SSD's architecture. New designs must also assess its lifecycle and the capacity/operational constraints of Monolithic and Distributed modes.
2. How do Tempo 3 distributed and monolithic modes differ?
- A) Both retain the old ingester
- B) Monolithic always requires Kafka
- C) Distributed mode uses Kafka; monolithic can run without Kafka
- D) Increasing monolithic chart replicas produces supported distributed HA
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Answer: C
Version 3 uses block-builders/live-stores and backend-scheduler/workers instead of the distributed ingester/compactor architecture. Do not mix its deployment modes.
3. Which limitation applies to tail sampling?
- A) It always preserves every error trace
- B) It decides from spans received within decision_wait and cannot recover head-dropped data
- C) Random Service balancing always keeps a trace on one sampler
- D) num_traces is the trace-per-second rate
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Answer: B
Late spans, buffer limits, restarts and transport failures matter. Multiple samplers require trace-ID-based routing.
4. What does the batch processor's send_batch_size control?
- A) Maximum batch size
- B) Maximum trace duration
- C) An item-count trigger for sending
- D) Persistent storage capacity
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Answer: C
send_batch_max_size is the batch-size ceiling. Place batching after memory limiting and sampling/drop processing.
5. What happens if every Alloy DaemonSet pod collects every cluster log target?
- A) Perfect HA deduplication is automatic
- B) Collection can duplicate; partition targets or configure source clustering
- C) The Kubernetes API automatically permits only one collector
- D) It cannot start because hostPath is always required
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Answer: B
The Kubernetes logs API source differs from file tailing. The single Deployment/Recreate example reduces duplication but does not provide HA or uninterrupted collection.
6. What is required for Loki retention?
- A) Only retention_period
- B) A 24-hour TSDB index, enabled compactor retention, delete_request_store and retention period
- C) Expire every object in the bucket at the same age
- D) The Grafana dashboard time range
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Answer: B
Deletion is delayed and asynchronous, and compactor state/markers must survive restarts. Bucket-wide lifecycle expiration can damage required objects such as indexes.
7. Which labels identify an AMP HA group and its replicas?
- A) namespace and pod
- B) cluster and replica
- C) service and trace_id
- D) region alone
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Answer: B
Replicas of the same scrape data share cluster and use distinct replica values. Grouping independent scrape coverage into one HA group can lose data.
8. Which statement about AMP retention is correct?
- A) 150 days is an immutable maximum
- B) It is configurable per workspace up to 1,095 days
- C) It is always unlimited
- D) Increasing it restores already deleted metrics
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Answer: B
Set retention after assessing requirements, cost and service limits. Expired data is not retroactively restored.
9. What is needed to link a Loki log to a Tempo trace in Grafana?
- A) Installing both automatically links them
- B) Correct trace-ID extraction, explicit datasource UIDs and accessible trace data
- C) Add trace IDs as ordinary Prometheus labels
- D) Enable HTTP/2 alone
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Answer: B
Match derivedFields/tracesToLogsV2 mappings, time range, tenancy and permissions. Exemplars also require instrumentation, OpenMetrics and storage configuration.
10. What must still be checked after chart rendering succeeds?
- A) Nothing; all unknown values are applied
- B) Actual PVCs, Services, identity, backend configuration and write/query paths
- C) Only YAML indentation
- D) Replace every image with latest
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Answer: B
Some chart values can be silently ignored. Check claims/accessModes and Service ports, and distinguish native parser validation from live environment connectivity.