Test your knowledge: Nginx Performance

Question 1 of 6

`worker_connections 4096;` applies to what scope?

It is a per-worker event-loop budget.

Answer options A The whole instance: 4096 total across all workers B Each worker individually — the instance ceiling is workers × worker_connections C Each listening socket D Each upstream pool

Each worker's event loop tracks up to worker_connections sockets — client plus upstream legs both count. Multiply by worker_processes for the machine ceiling, and keep the worker fd ceiling (worker_rlimit_nofile, Lesson 9.1) comfortably above it.

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Question 2 of 6

A request body larger than `client_body_buffer_size` — what happens?

There is a reason the receipt is a disk write.

Answer options A NGINX rejects it with 413 B It spills to a temporary file on disk — a warning in the error log (“buffered to a temporary file”) is the record C It is buffered in shared memory D NGINX streams it straight to the upstream

Bodies beyond the in-memory buffer spill to temp files: extra I/O, extra latency, and a signal your buffer defaults are wrong for your traffic. Raise it for JSON-heavy APIs; keep client_max_body_size as the hard gate.

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Question 3 of 6

`gzip on;` alone compresses almost nothing. What completes the config?

Only text/html is compiled in by default.

Answer options A gzip_comp_level 9; B gzip_types — the MIME list to compress (text/html is always on; application/json, SVG, and friends must be listed) C gzip_min_length 0; D sendfile on;

gzip_types selects what gets compressed — APIs forget application/json, dashboards forget image/svg+xml, both ship raw. Pair with gzip_min_length to skip tiny responses and gzip_vary for caches.

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Question 4 of 6

What does `gzip_static on;` do for pre-built assets?

The point is to never compress at request time.

Answer options A Compresses assets at startup into memory B Serves a pre-existing .gz sibling of the file when the client accepts gzip — zero per-request CPU C Enables gzip only for static locations D Double-compresses already-gzipped files

With app.js.gz sitting next to app.js, gzip_static hands it over as-is — build-time compression, request-time zero. brotli_static does the same for .br files.

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Question 5 of 6

Why does Brotli support require more than a config line?

Not in the core distribution.

Answer options A It is a commercial NGINX Plus module B It ships as a third-party dynamic module — built or installed, then loaded with load_module C It needs a separate stream{} listener D Brotli is enabled by default since 1.25

ngx_brotli is compiled or installed as a dynamic module and loaded via load_module in the main context. The payoff over gzip: noticeably better ratios on text at comparable speeds — worth it at the edge where every byte bills.

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Question 6 of 6

Serving HTTP/3 means the listen line gains what?

QUIC runs over UDP — a different socket, advertised to clients via Alt-Svc.

Answer options A listen 443 quic; alongside the TCP listener — QUIC is UDP B listen 443 http3; replacing TCP C listen 443 ssl http3; on the same socket D A quic { } block

HTTP/3 rides QUIC over UDP: you keep the TCP listener for older clients and add listen 443 quic — with reuseport when scale demands it. Alt-Svc tells browsers the h3 endpoint exists; 0-RTT resumption then removes a round trip.

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Test your knowledge: Nginx Performance