Why load balancing distributes traffic in Nginx - Test Your Understanding

Practice - 5 Tasks

1fill in blank

easy

Complete the code to define a basic load balancer using NGINX.

Nginx

upstream backend {
    server [1];
}

server {
    listen 80;
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://backend;
    }
}

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

Alocalhost:8080

B192.168.1.1:80

C127.0.0.1:8080

Dexample.com:80

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using domain names without ports

Using IP without port

Using invalid IP addresses

The server directive inside upstream defines the backend server address. Using 127.0.0.1:8080 is a common local backend example.

2fill in blank

medium

Complete the code to set the load balancing method to round robin.

Nginx

upstream backend {
    # [1];
    server 127.0.0.1:8080;
    server 127.0.0.1:8081;
}

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

Around_robin

Bip_hash

Cleast_conn

Dweight

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Choosing 'least_conn' or 'ip_hash' which are different methods

Using 'weight' which is not a method directive

The default load balancing method in NGINX is round robin, but explicitly setting round_robin clarifies the method used.

3fill in blank

hard

Fix the error in the load balancer configuration to enable sticky sessions.

Nginx

upstream backend {
    [1];
    server 192.168.0.10;
    server 192.168.0.11;
}

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Aleast_conn

Bip_hash

Cround_robin

Dsticky

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using 'sticky' which is not a valid directive in standard NGINX

Using 'round_robin' which does not guarantee sticky sessions

To enable sticky sessions in NGINX, the ip_hash directive is used to route clients to the same server based on their IP.

4fill in blank

hard

Fill both blanks to configure weighted load balancing for two servers.

Nginx

upstream backend {
    server 10.0.0.1 weight=[1];
    server 10.0.0.2 weight=[2];
}

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A3

B1

C5

D0

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using zero weight which disables the server

Using equal weights which does not show weighted distribution

Weights control how much traffic each server receives. A weight of 5 sends more traffic than a weight of 1.

5fill in blank

hard

Fill all three blanks to create a health check for backend servers.

Nginx

server {
    listen 80;
    location / {
        proxy_pass http://backend;
        proxy_next_upstream [1];
        proxy_connect_timeout [2]s;
        proxy_read_timeout [3]s;
    }
}

Drag options to blanks, or click blank then click option'

Aerror timeout invalid_header

B5

C10

Doff

Attempts:

3 left

💡 Hint

Common Mistakes

Using 'off' disables retries

Using zero or negative timeouts causes errors

proxy_next_upstream defines when to try the next server. Timeouts control connection and read wait times.