Which statement does a readiness health check endpoint perform?

• A. Checks readiness of downstream dependencies to route real traffic.
• B. Checks that the endpoint is deployed and responds to HTTP calls.
• C. Checks only memory usage.
• D. Monitors user authentication.

Answer: (A)

The main idea is that a readiness health check endpoint confirms that the service is actually able to handle real traffic now, not just that it’s running. It does this by verifying that all required downstream dependencies are reachable and functioning—things like databases, message queues, or external services. If those dependencies aren’t ready, the endpoint reports not ready so the orchestrator can avoid routing real requests to this instance until everything is healthy. That’s why this statement best describes a readiness check.

Note that simply verifying the endpoint is deployed and responsive to HTTP calls is more about basic reachability or liveness, not whether the service can process requests end-to-end with its dependencies. Checking only memory usage is too narrow, and monitoring user authentication isn’t what readiness checks are about—they’re not about per-request security, but about overall readiness to serve traffic.