University of Colombo School of Computing — BIT External Degree

EN6106 — Emerging Topics in IT
Topic 1: Microservices

Practice MCQ Paper | Academic Level III — Semester 6

Questions: 25 MCQs

Total Marks: 100

Duration: 1 Hour

Pass Mark: 40 / 100

Penalty: Yes

Important Instructions

This paper has 25 questions covering all sub-topics of Lesson 1: Microservices.
Each question has 5 choices with ONE OR MORE correct answers.
All questions carry equal marks (4 marks each, total 100 marks).
There is a penalty for incorrect responses to discourage guessing.
To PASS, you must score at least 40 marks out of 100.
Click Submit Paper only when you have answered all questions.

Marking Scheme (per question — max 4 marks)

Score = [ (Correct choices selected ÷ Total correct choices) − (Wrong choices selected ÷ Total wrong choices) ] × 4
Minimum score per question = 0 | Maximum = 4.00

Answered 0 / 25

Score: —

1.1 — Monolithic Systems & Service Oriented Architecture

Q 01Which of the following statements best describe the characteristics of a Monolithic Architecture?4 marks

(a)All functionalities are implemented and deployed as a single unified software application.

(b)Services are developed independently and communicate via lightweight APIs.

(c)Enterprise systems such as ERPs and CRMs are typically built using this architecture.

(d)Each service runs in its own process and can be deployed separately.

(e)Monolithic applications use coarse-grained services with broad scope and complex message formats.

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Q 02What are the benefits of a monolithic software system compared to microservices?4 marks

(a)Simplicity of having a single codebase.

(b)Easy to practice agile development and delivery.

(c)Speedy initial development and deployment.

(d)Services can be scaled individually based on load.

(e)Centralised logging and monitoring are straightforward.

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Q 03Which of the following are known drawbacks of a Monolithic Architecture?4 marks

(a)Hard to practice agile development and delivery methodologies.

(b)Scaling the application requires scaling the entire unit, even if only one service is under load.

(c)An unstable component in one part of the application can bring the entire system down.

(d)Updating a single part of the application requires redeploying the whole application.

(e)Each service must maintain its own private database, complicating transactions.

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1.2 — Introduction to Microservices

Q 04Which of the following are features of a Microservices Architecture?4 marks

(a)The application is developed as a suite of fine-grained, independent services.

(b)Each service runs in its own process and can be developed and deployed independently.

(c)Services use heavyweight SOAP-based communication with complex message schemas.

(d)RESTful APIs can be used to connect frontend and backend microservices.

(e)The Spring Boot framework can be used to implement microservices.

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Q 05When designing microservices, what are the correct principles related to size, scope and capabilities?4 marks

(a)The size of a microservice should be measured strictly by lines of code.

(b)The Single Responsibility Principle (SRP) should guide the design: each service should have a limited, focused business scope.

(c)Services should align with business capabilities and service boundaries.

(d)A microservice should have very few operations and a simple message format, unlike broad web services.

(e)Microservice size should be determined by the number of developers in the team.

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Q 06Which of the following are synchronous messaging protocols used in microservices communication?4 marks

(a)REST (Representational State Transfer)

(b)AMQP (Advanced Message Queuing Protocol)

(c)Thrift

(d)MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport)

(e)STOMP (Simple Text Oriented Messaging Protocol)

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Q 07Which of the following are asynchronous messaging protocols used in microservices?4 marks

(a)REST

(b)AMQP (Advanced Message Queuing Protocol)

(c)Thrift

(d)MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport)

(e)STOMP (Simple Text Oriented Messaging Protocol)

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Q 08Which of the following are valid message formats used in microservices?4 marks

(a)JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)

(b)SQL

(c)XML (Extensible Markup Language)

(d)Thrift

(e)Avro

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Q 09What are the correct styles of inter-service communication in a Microservices Architecture?4 marks

(a)Point-to-point — services invoke each other directly.

(b)Centralised Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) — all communication passes through a single smart bus.

(c)API-Gateway — clients interact through a single gateway entry point.

(d)Message Broker — services communicate via a broker using publish/subscribe.

(e)Shared-memory — all services access a common memory space.

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Q 10Which of the following correctly describes Decentralised Data Management in Microservices?4 marks

(a)Each microservice can have its own private database to persist data for its business functionality.

(b)A microservice can directly query the private database of another microservice.

(c)In some scenarios, updating several databases for a single transaction may be necessary.

(d)Other microservices' databases must be updated only through the respective service's API.

(e)Decentralised data management means all data is stored in a single central database.

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1.3 — Key Benefits and Challenges

Q 11Which statements about Docker Containers are correct?4 marks

(a)Docker containers share the host OS among all containers, making them lightweight.

(b)Each Docker container includes its own separate operating system kernel.

(c)Docker containers are suitable for running multiple applications over a single OS kernel.

(d)Docker lets you separate your applications from infrastructure to deliver software quickly.

(e)Scaling with Docker is done by changing the number of container instances.

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Q 12Which of the following correctly compare Virtual Machines (VMs) and Docker Containers?4 marks

(a)Each VM has its own Guest OS (Linux or Windows) running inside it.

(b)Docker containers share the host OS, which makes them lighter and faster to start.

(c)Virtual Machines are needed when applications must run on different operating systems.

(d)Docker containers each include a full hypervisor layer.

(e)Virtual Machines allow developers to build, test and deploy code within simulated environments.

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Q 13Which of the following are core components of Kubernetes architecture?4 marks

(a)Pods — the smallest deployable units in Kubernetes.

(b)Docker Compose files.

(c)Kubelet — an agent that runs on each node.

(d)etcd — a distributed key-value store used as Kubernetes' backing store.

(e)Controller Manager — manages controllers that regulate cluster state.

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Q 14What is the purpose of a Service Registry and Service Discovery in Microservices?4 marks

(a)The Service Registry holds microservice instances and their network locations.

(b)Service Discovery is used to find available microservices and their locations at runtime.

(c)The Service Registry replaces the need for any API Gateway.

(d)In Client-side Discovery, the client queries the Service Registry and routes the request itself.

(e)In Server-side Discovery, a Load Balancer queries the Service Registry and routes the request.

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Q 15Which are key characteristics of Decentralised Governance in Microservices?4 marks

(a)There is no centralised design-time governance; each team makes its own design decisions.

(b)All services must use the same programming language and database technology.

(c)Runtime governance (SLAs, monitoring, security) may be implemented at the API-Gateway level.

(d)Common and reusable services are shared across teams.

(e)A central authority must approve all microservice designs before implementation.

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1.4 — Design Patterns

Q 16What are correct statements about OAuth 2.0 in the context of Microservice Security?4 marks

(a)The client authenticates with an Authorisation Server and receives an opaque Access Token.

(b)The Access Token contains full user information, making it easy to validate locally.

(c)The OAuth 2.0 Access Token is a 'by-reference token' — it contains only a reference to user info.

(d)The Access Token is safe to use over public networks because it carries no user information directly.

(e)OAuth 2.0 provides an ID Token signed with JWT by default, containing user claims.

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Q 17Which are correct statements about OpenID Connect and JWT in Microservices?4 marks

(a)OpenID Connect extends OAuth 2.0 by issuing an ID Token in addition to the Access Token.

(b)The ID Token is implemented as a JWT signed by the Authorisation Server.

(c)JWT is known as a 'by-reference token' and is safe to use over public networks.

(d)JWT is known as a 'by-value token' because it contains user information directly.

(e)JWT tokens should not be used outside the internal network due to the user information they contain.

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Q 18Which of the following are error-handling design patterns used in Microservices to handle failures?4 marks

(a)Circuit Breaker — stops making requests to a failing service after a threshold is reached.

(b)Bulkhead — isolates failures so a problem in one service does not cascade to others.

(c)Timeout — sets a maximum wait time for a service response before aborting.

(d)Saga — handles distributed transactions across multiple microservices.

(e)Singleton — ensures only one instance of a service runs at any time.

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Q 19Which statements about Microservice Deployment are correct?4 marks

(a)Each microservice must be deployable and un-deployable independently of others.

(b)All microservices should share a single process to reduce overhead.

(c)Docker is used to package each microservice as a container image.

(d)A failure in one microservice must not bring down the entire system.

(e)Kubernetes enables container orchestration across multiple hosts with service discovery.

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Q 20In a Microservices Architecture, transactions spanning multiple services are challenging. Which of the following are correct?4 marks

(a)Microservice architecture encourages transaction-less coordination between services.

(b)ACID transactions across multiple microservices are simple to implement.

(c)Mandatory transaction requirements can be fulfilled using 'compensating operations'.

(d)Supporting distributed transactions across multiple microservices is too complex for practical use.

(e)Each microservice can always share a single distributed transaction manager.

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Q 21What are the differences between Inner Architecture and Outer Architecture in a modern microservices enterprise?4 marks

(a)Inner Architecture refers to the pure microservices components and their business logic.

(b)Outer Architecture delivers platform capabilities such as API Gateway, Security, and Service Registry.

(c)Inner Architecture is responsible for managing external integrations like ERPs and SaaS platforms.

(d)Outer Architecture includes DevOps tools, container infrastructure, and messaging channels.

(e)Inner and Outer Architecture are the same concept viewed from different perspectives.

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Q 22Which of the following statements about migrating from Monolithic to Microservices are correct?4 marks

(a)Migration is challenging because monolithic systems typically use a single, shared database schema.

(b)The entire monolith must be rewritten at once — partial migration is not possible.

(c)Migration should typically be done gradually, extracting one service at a time.

(d)Most migrated systems will have a hybrid architecture combining both monolithic and microservices components.

(e)Once migration starts, using any monolithic components alongside microservices is strictly prohibited.

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Q 23Which of the following are correct about Orchestrating Microservices?4 marks

(a)Service orchestration logic is best placed within a dedicated microservice, not at the Gateway layer.

(b)Placing business logic in the API Gateway for orchestration is the recommended best practice.

(c)Embedding new business functionality into the Gateway violates microservices architecture principles.

(d)A microservice can call other microservices to fulfil complex business operations.

(e)Orchestration at the Gateway layer is not recommended because it couples business logic to infrastructure.

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Q 24Which of the following describe the role of the API Gateway in a Microservices Architecture?4 marks

(a)The API Gateway acts as the single entry point for all client requests.

(b)Runtime governance concerns such as SLAs, throttling, monitoring and security can be handled at the API Gateway.

(c)The API Gateway can replace all microservices and hold all business logic centrally.

(d)The API Gateway routes client requests to the appropriate microservices.

(e)In server-side service discovery, the API Gateway may interact with a Load Balancer to find services.

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Q 25Which of the following are true about Microservices as concluded in the lecture notes?4 marks

(a)Microservices is not a panacea — it will not solve all enterprise IT needs.

(b)Most enterprises will be able to fully replace all their IT systems with microservices immediately.

(c)Enterprise Integration remains necessary even when adopting microservices.

(d)Microservices are typically exposed as APIs.

(e)Interaction between microservices should be supported via a lightweight orchestration engine, Gateway, or inside another microservice.

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EN6106 — Emerging Topics in ITTopic 1: Microservices

Important Instructions

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EN6106 — Emerging Topics in IT
Topic 1: Microservices