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DNS (Domain Name System) Quiz
Test your understanding of the concepts covered in this chapter.
Question 1 of 5
Why can't a standard CNAME record be used at the root apex domain (e.g., example.com), and how is this limitation resolved for CDN or Load Balancer routing?
CNAME records require an IP address rather than a domain name, so an ALIAS/ANAME record is used to map to the load balancer's IP directly.
A CNAME record cannot coexist with other record types (like MX or NS) which are required at the root domain. An ALIAS/ANAME record solves this by resolving the target domain server-side and returning an A record.
CNAME records introduce too much DNS resolution latency for root domains, whereas ALIAS/ANAME records bypass recursive resolvers entirely.
Root name servers do not support CNAME resolutions due to security policies, so ALIAS/ANAME is used for cryptographic signing.
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