OpenTelemetry: From Discovery to Expertise

1. How do you configure the collector endpoint in an instrumented application?

By modifying the BIOS Through the OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT environment variable Hard-coded in the source code Through a .txt file

2. What is the command to check the OTel collector version?

otelcol --version otelcol version otelcol -v cat version.txt

3. What is a 'Span Link'?

A hyperlink A causal relationship between two spans that are not necessarily parent/child (e.g. asynchronous processing) A keyboard shortcut A network error

4. Which standard W3C header is used for trace propagation?

X-Trace-ID traceparent b3-traceid uber-trace-id

5. In Kubernetes, what is the difference between 'Sidecar' and 'DaemonSet' mode for the collector?

Sidecar is for logs, DaemonSet for traces Sidecar runs alongside each application, DaemonSet runs once per physical node There is no difference DaemonSet is paid

Chapter The OpenTelemetry Collector

6. What is the OTel Collector 'Contrib'?

A paid version A distribution including community-provided components (specific receivers/exporters) An unstable version The source code only

7. What does a span's 'Status' attribute contain?

The IP address The status code (Unset, Ok or Error) The server name The CPU time

Chapter The OpenTelemetry Collector

8. Congratulations! What is the future of observability according to the CNCF?

Less data A single open standard with OpenTelemetry to break down silos More Excel files A return to paper logs

9. In the collector, what does the 'resourcedetection' processor do?

It deletes data It queries the environment (cloud, K8s) to add labels to outgoing data It checks the YAML is valid It detects outages

Chapter Introduction and Architecture · Alloy: From Discovery to Expertise

10. Which new signal was recently added as the 4th pillar in OpenTelemetry?

Baggage Continuous Profiling (Profiles) Health Checks Network Flow

Chapter Logs

11. Which Collector receiver reads log files?

filelog hostmetrics otlp prometheus

Chapter The OpenTelemetry Collector

12. What does the 'Vendor Neutral' aspect of OpenTelemetry mean?

There is no technical support It only works with free tools It lets you send data to any backend without changing the application code It belongs to Google

13. Can you use OTel to monitor SQL databases?

No Yes, through receivers that query performance metrics or by instrumenting client drivers Only for MySQL Only through logs

Chapter The OpenTelemetry Collector

14. In OTLP/HTTP, what is the default endpoint for sending traces?

/v1/metrics /v1/traces /v1/logs /export/traces

15. What is an 'Exemplar' in OTel?

A code template A link between a metric and a specific trace (e.g. seeing the trace behind a latency spike) Documentation A test server

Chapter The OpenTelemetry Collector

16. What is the difference between OpenTelemetry and Prometheus?

Prometheus is a standard, OTel is a tool OTel is a multi-signal collection standard, Prometheus is mainly a metrics system and a database They are identical OTel replaces Prometheus

17. What is a 'Resource' in the OTel data model?

A database The entity producing the telemetry (e.g. service name, version, host) A configuration file A CPU unit

18. What is the role of the 'ZPages' component in the collector (in dev mode)?

A database A local web interface for viewing the collector's internal state An alerting system A compressor

Chapter The OpenTelemetry Collector

19. What is OpenTelemetry's native transport protocol?

HTTP/JSON OTLP PromQL StatsD

Chapter The OpenTelemetry Collector

20. How does OTel handle the security of data in transit?

It does not Through native TLS/mTLS support on receivers and exporters Only with a password By using a VPN