Which assumption most often delays an OpenTelemetry integration?

The correct assumption is that the data will appear automatically once services are instrumented, without an ingestion endpoint being configured and reachable. Instrumentation and export are separate steps. Teams frequently complete the first, see nothing in Instana, and conclude the integration is broken when the exporter was never pointed anywhere reachable.

The assumption that OpenTelemetry requires its own separate Instana licence is incorrect because licensing is not the common blocker described here. The assumption that instrumented services must also run an Instana agent is incorrect because OpenTelemetry ingestion is a distinct path from agent instrumentation. The assumption that spans are retained indefinitely by default is incorrect because retention is governed by policy and is not the cause of missing data.

For the exam, remember that exporters must be explicitly configured with a destination.