Bailey creates a single computer that stores mappings from domain names to IP addresses. Which is a scalability flaw of this design?

Bailey creates a single computer that stores mappings from domain names to IP addresses. Which is a scalability flaw of this design?

• A. The central computer can be overwhelmed by requests as more devices join.
• B. If the central computer turns off, no one can map domain names.
• C. The system automatically distributes load across many servers.
• D. It automatically scales without any performance issues.

Answer: (A)

In this design, one computer handles all domain-to-IP mappings for every device. That creates a centralized bottleneck: as more devices join and make lookups, the central machine has to work harder, handling more requests and more load. Its processing power, memory, and network bandwidth are finite, so throughput can drop, latency can rise, or the system can fail to keep up when demand spikes. That kind of growth-related slowdown is exactly what we mean by a scalability flaw. The other ideas describe different issues. If the central computer goes offline, mappings aren’t available at all, which is a reliability problem, not a scalability one. Automatically distributing load or scaling without issues would actually improve scalability, not reflect a flaw.

In this design, one computer handles all domain-to-IP mappings for every device. That creates a centralized bottleneck: as more devices join and make lookups, the central machine has to work harder, handling more requests and more load. Its processing power, memory, and network bandwidth are finite, so throughput can drop, latency can rise, or the system can fail to keep up when demand spikes. That kind of growth-related slowdown is exactly what we mean by a scalability flaw.

The other ideas describe different issues. If the central computer goes offline, mappings aren’t available at all, which is a reliability problem, not a scalability one. Automatically distributing load or scaling without issues would actually improve scalability, not reflect a flaw.