Q17 (20) Choose the two incorrect options regarding SLOs (service level objectives) and...

Option A is incorrect because legal liability attaches to SLA breaches, not SLO breaches—SLAs are contractual commitments while SLOs are internal targets. Option C is incorrect because SLAs are typically set at less stringent (easier to achieve) values than SLOs; SLOs are the internal engineering target, and SLAs are the customer-facing promise set conservatively below the SLO to provide a buffer. Option B is correct: SREs use error budgets derived from SLOs to justify intentional outages for deployment, maintenance, or experimentation. Option D is correct: SLAs do consider competitive positioning, engineering feasibility, and customer requirements.

Step-by-step Derivation:
Key SRE concepts: (1) SLA = Service Level Agreement (contractual, customer-facing, legal consequences for breach); (2) SLO = Service Level Objective (internal target, typically stricter than SLA); (3) Error budget = 100% - SLO%, used to justify controlled outages; (4) SLAs protect customers with strict thresholds; SLOs guide engineering with ambitious targets. Analyzing each option: A (incorrect—legal liability follows SLA breach, not SLO); B (correct—error budgets explicitly permit intentional outages within SLO bounds); C (incorrect—SLOs are stricter than SLAs, not the reverse); D (correct—SLAs incorporate competitive analysis, engineering constraints, and customer needs).