Cross-cutting Concepts Flashcards
7 cards from real CPSA practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Cross-cutting Concepts flashcards as text
Which cross-cutting concept ensures that all system components record events in a consistent, correlated manner for troubleshooting?
Answer: Distributed tracing
Distributed tracing correlates log events across services using shared trace IDs, enabling end-to-end troubleshooting in distributed systems.
In iSAQB CPSA, which term describes technical concepts that affect multiple components or layers without belonging exclusively to any single one?
Answer: Cross-cutting concerns
Cross-cutting concerns are aspects like logging, security, and caching that span multiple architectural elements and cannot be cleanly encapsulated in one module.
A system must validate user roles on every REST endpoint. Which cross-cutting mechanism is most appropriate?
Answer: Middleware or interceptor pipeline
Middleware or interceptor pipelines apply cross-cutting logic such as authorization to every request without scattering that logic across individual endpoint handlers.
Which strategy best addresses consistency of error responses across all services in a microservices architecture?
Answer: Defining a shared error response schema and enforcing it via an API gateway
A shared error response schema enforced at the API gateway ensures uniform error handling that clients can rely on regardless of which backend service responded.
What is the primary architectural reason for externalizing configuration (e.g., feature flags, connection strings) from application code?
Answer: To allow environment-specific behavior without rebuilding artifacts
Externalizing configuration decouples deployment artifacts from environment-specific values, enabling the same build to run in dev, staging, and production.
Which cross-cutting concept primarily protects against sensitive data being exposed in log files?
Answer: Data masking / log sanitization
Data masking or log sanitization strips or obscures PII and secrets before they are written to log sinks, preventing inadvertent exposure.
A new service is added to a system. According to CPSA cross-cutting principles, which concern should be addressed at the architecture level before coding begins?
Answer: How the service will emit health metrics and structured logs
Observability (health metrics and structured logs) is a cross-cutting architectural concern that must be designed in from the start, not retrofitted.