Alibaba ACA-Developer Exam - Topic 2 Question 87 Discussion

Actual exam question for Alibaba's ACA-Developer exam

Question #: 87
Topic #: 2

A developer have written a web application using a microservice architecture, in such a architecture, the client (web browser or mobile application) first initiates a request. The request first reaches the load balancer, then goes through an authentication service, a billing service, then requests a resource, and finally a result is returned. How many spans does such a call chain consist of?

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Suggested Answer: A

by Ricki at Jul 29, 2025, 10:19 AM

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Margo

9 months ago

I thought it was 4, but I see the reasoning for 5.

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Roxane

9 months ago

Wait, are we counting the load balancer too?

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Ngoc

10 months ago

Totally agree, 5 makes sense!

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Clare

10 months ago

Really? I’m surprised it’s that many!

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Barrett

10 months ago

There are 5 spans in that call chain.

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Georgeanna

10 months ago

I feel like it could be 4 spans, but I need to double-check how we counted the initial request in practice questions.

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Galen

10 months ago

If I recall correctly, the load balancer and each service should be counted, so maybe it's 6 spans?

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Hildegarde

11 months ago

I'm not entirely sure, but I remember a similar question where we counted each component separately.

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Gail

11 months ago

I think there are 5 spans because each service in the chain counts as a span, plus the initial request.

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Rusty

11 months ago

I'm pretty confident the answer is 5 spans. The question clearly states the call chain goes through the load balancer, authentication service, billing service, and resource request, which is 4 spans, plus the initial client request and final result return, so that's a total of 5.

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Helga

11 months ago

Okay, I think I've got this. The call chain goes through the load balancer, authentication service, billing service, and resource request, so that's 4 spans. The client request and result return aren't counted separately.

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Darci

11 months ago

Hmm, I'm a bit confused about how to count the spans here. Do I include the initial client request and the final result return, or just the services in between?

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Dolores

12 months ago

This seems like a straightforward question about the number of spans in a microservice call chain. I'll need to carefully think through the steps described in the question.

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