Which of the following is an advantage of microservice-based design?

Microservice-based design provides several significant advantages, among which improved scalability and fault isolation stand out prominently. In a microservices architecture, applications are composed of smaller, independent services that communicate over well-defined APIs. This structure allows each microservice to be scaled individually based on demand. For instance, if one component of an application experiences high traffic, only that specific service can be scaled without needing to scale the entire application, leading to more efficient resource utilization and better overall performance.

Fault isolation is another crucial benefit of this design. Since microservices are decoupled from one another, if one service fails, it does not necessarily bring down the entire system. This isolation allows for the functionality of other services to remain intact, improving the overall resilience of the application. Teams can also address and resolve issues with individual microservices without disrupting dependent services, facilitating quicker recovery times and a more robust operational environment.

The other choices suggest disadvantages or irrelevant aspects of microservices. Faster buffer performance does not directly correlate with the architecture style itself, and increased system downtime contradicts the advantages of microservices, which aim to enhance uptime through isolation. Minimizing deployment flexibility also runs contrary to the purpose of microservices, as they are designed to allow for easier and independent deployments.