PC-ESA BCS Practitioner Certificate in Enterprise and Solutions Architecture Practice Questions
Prepare for PC-ESA with more than an answer.
- Level
- Practitioner
- Valid for
- No expiration (lifetime credential)
Domains covered on the exam 6
- Architecture Domains and Frameworks15%
- Architecture and the Organisation15%
- Professionalism in Architecture20%
- Corporate Governance10%
- Architectural Process, Tools and Vision25%
- Quality Assurance15%
- 1
The ISO/IEC 42010 standard is highly relevant to enterprise and solution architects. What is the primary focus of this specific standard?
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Correct answer: C
ISO/IEC 42010 (Systems and software engineering — Architecture description) is the international standard for architecture descriptions of systems and software. It formally defines concepts like stakeholders, concerns, views, and viewpoints, ensuring that architecture documentation addresses the specific needs of its audience. ISO 27001 is for security, and ISO 20000 is for IT service management.
- 2
A Solution Architect is working with a business sponsor to define the goals for a new customer relationship management (CRM) replacement project. The sponsor states: 'We need the new system to improve customer satisfaction and be faster than the old one.'
To ensure proper business strategy alignment, the architect must refine this statement into SMART goals. Which of the following represents the BEST translation of the sponsor's statement into a SMART goal?
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Correct answer: B
SMART goals must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This option specifies the exact metric (NPS and retrieval time), provides measurable targets (15% increase, under 2 seconds), is realistic/achievable, relevant to the sponsor's desire for satisfaction and speed, and includes a clear time boundary (within 6 months of go-live). Vague goals lead to poor architecture justification and scope creep.
- 3
A multinational financial institution is restructuring its enterprise architecture practice. The Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) mandates that the architecture team must adopt a formal framework specifically focused on defining the taxonomy and conceptual structure of cybersecurity knowledge, rather than a process for developing security architecture. Which framework should the architecture team select to meet this requirement?
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Correct answer: A
CyBOK (Cyber Security Body of Knowledge) is specifically designed to provide a comprehensive taxonomy and conceptual structure for cybersecurity knowledge, acting as a foundational reference rather than a developmental methodology. SABSA is a methodology and framework for developing risk-driven enterprise information security architectures. TOGAF is a general enterprise architecture process framework, and ISO 27001 is a standard for Information Security Management Systems.
- 4
A retail banking organization is transitioning from a monolithic legacy core banking system to a modern microservices architecture. The lead architect needs to document the system in a way that allows both business stakeholders to understand the overall context and developers to understand the internal workings of individual deployable units.
The architect decides to use the C4 model. During a presentation to the software engineering team, the architect needs to show the high-level technical building blocks (e.g., web applications, databases, microservices) and how they communicate, without exposing the internal class structures or code-level details.
Which level of the C4 model should the architect present to the engineering team for this specific purpose?
flowchart TD A[Level 1: System Context] --> B[Level 2: Container] B --> C[Level 3: Component] C --> D[Level 4: Code]Show answer details
Correct answer: D
In the C4 model, the Level 2 Container diagram shows the high-level shape of the software architecture and how responsibilities are distributed across it. A 'container' in this context is a separately deployable unit (like a web application, database, or microservice) that executes code or stores data. This provides the exact level of detail needed for engineers to understand inter-service communication without diving into Level 3 (Components/internal modules) or Level 4 (Code/classes).
