SAA-C03 Practice Exam 2 — 20 Questions

Question 1

A studio keeps 4 PB of completed video projects in Amazon S3. Editors work on active projects for about 60 days, auditors occasionally review the same objects for several months, and legal policy requires retention for 7 years. Retrieval of very old files can take hours. Which three actions should the architect recommend? Select three.

Accepted Answer

Transition objects to S3 Standard-IA after 60 days.. Option A is correct because after 60 days of active editing, objects can be transitioned to S3 Standard-IA, which offers lower storage costs than S3 Standard while still providing low-latency retrieval for occasional access by auditors. This lifecycle policy optimizes cost without sacrificing availability for the review period.

Answer

Keep the files in S3 Standard indefinitely so retrieval is always fast.

Answer

Copy the files to a single EBS volume for lower per-GB cost.

Question 2

A team runs a CPU-intensive image processing service on Amazon EC2. The service spends most of its time resizing and compressing images, and the team wants the best price-performance starting point for compute-heavy work. Which EC2 instance family should they choose?

Accepted Answer

Compute optimized instances. Compute optimized instances (C family) are designed for workloads that benefit from high-performance processors, such as batch processing, media transcoding, and image processing. Since the team's service is CPU-intensive (resizing and compressing images), the C family provides the best price-performance starting point for compute-heavy work.

Answer

Memory optimized instances

Answer

Storage optimized instances

Answer

General purpose instances

Question 3

A team needs a relational database solution that can automatically fail over to a standby instance if the primary database becomes unavailable. They want the standby to be located in a different Availability Zone. Which RDS/Aurora configuration best satisfies this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Multi-AZ deployment with an automatically managed standby in a different Availability Zone and automatic failover.. Option B is correct because a Multi-AZ RDS deployment automatically provisions and maintains a standby instance in a different Availability Zone, and the failover is handled automatically by AWS without manual intervention. This meets the requirement for automatic failover to a standby in a different AZ, which is the core purpose of Multi-AZ deployments.

Answer

Single-AZ DB deployment and rely on manual snapshot restore during failures.

Answer

Enable read replicas only, and promote a replica manually when the primary fails.

Answer

Enable point-in-time recovery (PITR) without configuring any Multi-AZ standby.

Question 4

A startup expects steady compute usage around the clock for the next year. They want to reduce costs compared to On-Demand pricing, without tightly planning specific instance types. Which option best matches their goal?

Accepted Answer

Purchase a Compute Savings Plan to receive discounted rates for a usage amount over a 1-year term.. A Compute Savings Plan offers the lowest prices on EC2 compute usage (including Fargate and Lambda) in exchange for a commitment to a consistent amount of compute (measured in $/hour) over a 1-year or 3-year term. This matches the startup's steady, predictable usage and provides up to 66% savings over On-Demand, while allowing flexibility to change instance families, sizes, regions, or even switch to containers without renegotiating the plan.

Answer

Purchase a Reserved Instance that must be tied to exactly one specific instance size (no flexibility to switch instance families).

Answer

Only use Spot Instances and set the workload to stop immediately if capacity is interrupted.

Answer

Rely on On-Demand pricing and add more alarms to detect when costs spike.

Question 5

A team runs a latency-sensitive service on EC2 and needs consistent, low-latency block storage for a database. The application requires predictable performance and should be fast for random reads/writes. Which EBS volume type is the best choice?

Accepted Answer

EBS gp3 (general purpose SSD). B is correct because gp3 is a general-purpose SSD that provides consistent, low-latency performance for random read/write operations, making it ideal for latency-sensitive databases. It offers a baseline of 3,000 IOPS and 125 MB/s throughput, with the ability to independently scale IOPS up to 16,000 and throughput up to 1,000 MB/s, ensuring predictable performance without the burst-bucket limitations of gp2.

Answer

EBS st1 (throughput optimized HDD)

Answer

EBS sc1 (cold HDD)

Answer

EBS magnetic (legacy magnetic)

Question 6

A web application uses an Amazon Aurora DB cluster for a read-heavy workload. The team wants to increase read throughput without changing the database schema or rewriting application data access patterns. Which two changes should they make? Select two.

Accepted Answer

Add Aurora Replicas to scale out read traffic across multiple database instances.. Adding Aurora Replicas (Option A) directly increases read throughput by distributing read-only queries across multiple database instances, which is ideal for a read-heavy workload. Sending read queries to the Aurora reader endpoint (Option B) ensures that these queries are load-balanced across all available replicas, offloading the writer instance and improving overall performance without requiring schema or application changes.

Answer

Point all queries to the writer endpoint so Aurora can balance reads and writes internally.

Answer

Enable Multi-AZ standby for the cluster to increase the number of read-only connections.

Answer

Move the database to a single larger instance class instead of adding replicas.

Question 7

A startup runs a 24/7 web tier on Amazon EC2 with a stable baseline of 8 instances and a nightly analytics batch job that can resume from checkpoints if interrupted. The company wants to minimize monthly compute cost without hurting the always-on web tier. Which two actions should it take? Select two.

Accepted Answer

Buy a Compute Savings Plan for the steady web tier baseline.. A Compute Savings Plan offers the largest discount (up to 66%) in exchange for a 1- or 3-year hourly spend commitment, and it automatically applies to any EC2 instance family, size, or region. For the stable 8-instance web tier that runs 24/7, this plan provides significant cost savings while maintaining full flexibility to change instance types or even move to containers or Lambda, without affecting the always-on requirement.

Answer

Buy Standard Reserved Instances only for the nightly analytics batch job.

Answer

Move the entire workload to On-Demand Instances for maximum flexibility.

Answer

Use Dedicated Hosts for the batch job so the fleet is isolated.

Question 8

Your application runs in private subnets with no NAT gateway. It needs to call AWS Secrets Manager to retrieve secrets. For private connectivity without internet egress, which VPC endpoint type should you create for AWS Secrets Manager?

Accepted Answer

An Interface VPC endpoint (AWS PrivateLink) for secretsmanager in your Region. An Interface VPC endpoint (AWS PrivateLink) creates an elastic network interface in your subnet with a private IP address, allowing your instances to communicate with AWS Secrets Manager over the AWS network without traversing the internet. Since your application runs in private subnets with no NAT gateway, this is the only supported endpoint type for Secrets Manager, as Gateway endpoints are only available for S3 and DynamoDB.

Answer

A Gateway VPC endpoint for secretsmanager

Answer

A NAT gateway in the private subnet route table

Answer

A VPC peering connection to the AWS public network hosting Secrets Manager

Question 9

A company hosts a image sharing application on EC2. Administrators must connect without opening SSH or RDP ports to the internet. What should the architect use? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.

Accepted Answer

AWS Systems Manager Session Manager with the required instance role. AWS Systems Manager Session Manager allows secure shell access to EC2 instances without opening inbound ports (SSH 22 or RDP 3389) to the internet. It uses the AWS Systems Manager agent and an IAM instance role to establish a bidirectional connection via the AWS API, eliminating the need for a bastion host or public IP. This meets the requirement of avoiding custom operational scripts because Session Manager is a fully managed service with no additional configuration beyond the agent and role.

Answer

An internet gateway attached to the private subnet

Answer

A public Elastic IP address on each instance

Answer

A bastion host with SSH open to 0.0.0.0/0

Question 10

A team needs to distribute TCP traffic (not HTTP) across multiple services. The services must see the original client source IP for auditing. Which AWS load balancer is the best fit?

Accepted Answer

Network Load Balancer (NLB) using TCP listeners. A Network Load Balancer (NLB) is the best fit because it operates at Layer 4 (TCP/UDP) and preserves the original client source IP address by default, which is required for auditing. It can distribute raw TCP traffic across multiple services without inspecting application-layer headers, making it ideal for non-HTTP TCP workloads.

Answer

Application Load Balancer (ALB) using HTTP/HTTPS listeners with host-based routing

Answer

Classic Load Balancer (CLB) configured for TCP health checks only

Answer

API Gateway with a VPC Link to forward raw TCP traffic

Question 11

A worker service consumes messages from an Amazon SQS queue. Some messages are malformed and always fail validation. The worker retries, but it keeps reprocessing the same bad messages and consumes processing capacity that should be used for valid work. What is the best solution to prevent “poison messages” from blocking progress?

Accepted Answer

Configure a Dead-Letter Queue (DLQ) and set a redrive policy so messages move to the DLQ after a maximum number of receives.. A Dead-Letter Queue (DLQ) with a redrive policy is the standard AWS mechanism for handling poison messages. By setting a maximum receive count (e.g., 5), the SQS queue automatically moves messages that fail processing repeatedly to the DLQ, isolating them from the main queue. This prevents the worker from wasting capacity on invalid messages and allows the main queue to continue processing valid work without interruption.

Answer

Increase the visibility timeout so the worker gets fewer retries per hour.

Answer

Disable SQS retries by deleting messages immediately on any processing error.

Answer

Create a second worker that polls the queue less frequently until the malformed message is processed successfully.

Question 12

A test environment has EC2 instances that are oversized based on CPU, memory, and network utilisation. Which AWS service should identify rightsizing recommendations? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.

Accepted Answer

AWS Compute Optimizer. AWS Compute Optimizer is a managed service that uses machine learning to analyze historical utilization metrics (CPU, memory, network, and storage) and provides rightsizing recommendations for EC2 instances. It identifies over-provisioned resources and suggests instance types that better match workload requirements, directly addressing the oversized EC2 instances in the test environment.

Answer

AWS DataSync

Answer

AWS Shield

Answer

AWS Artifact

Question 13

A company runs its customer-facing web app on EC2 behind an Application Load Balancer. The database is Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL. The requirement is that if a single Availability Zone fails, the database must automatically fail over within the same AWS Region with minimal application changes. Which database setup best meets this requirement?

Accepted Answer

Deploy the RDS PostgreSQL instance as Multi-AZ with automatic failover enabled.. Option B is correct because RDS Multi-AZ with automatic failover provides synchronous replication to a standby instance in a different Availability Zone. If the primary AZ fails, RDS automatically flips the DNS CNAME to the standby, resulting in minimal application changes (only a brief connection interruption). This meets the requirement for automatic failover within the same region without manual intervention.

Answer

Use an RDS single-AZ instance and periodically restore from automated backups if needed.

Answer

Create a read replica in a different AZ and use it only when the primary fails.

Answer

Use RDS with Multi-AZ disabled, but increase storage IOPS to prevent failover.

Question 14

A web application runs on an EC2 Auto Scaling group (ASG) behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The ASG spans three Availability Zones. After a deployment, new instances frequently fail the ALB target group health checks with HTTP 5xx responses and are quickly terminated by the ASG. What change most improves resiliency during deployments with minimal downtime by preventing premature removal of instances that are still starting?

Accepted Answer

Use a longer ASG health check grace period and deploy new instances using controlled replacement (for example, rolling instance refresh) so existing healthy instances continue serving while new ones warm up.. Option B is correct because increasing the ASG health check grace period gives new instances more time to complete their startup and pass the ALB health checks before the ASG marks them unhealthy. A rolling instance refresh replaces instances in a controlled manner, ensuring that existing healthy instances continue serving traffic while new instances warm up, minimizing downtime and preventing premature termination.

Answer

Reduce the ASG health check grace period to 0 seconds so issues are detected faster.

Answer

Restrict the ASG to a single Availability Zone so health check evaluation is simpler.

Answer

Disable ALB health checks so the ASG does not terminate instances on HTTP 5xx responses.

Question 15

A telemetry pipeline uses an Application Load Balancer in one Region. Global users need lower network latency to the application without caching dynamic responses. What should be considered?

Accepted Answer

AWS Global Accelerator. AWS Global Accelerator uses the Anycast IP address concept to route traffic through the AWS global network to the optimal endpoint, reducing latency and jitter for global users. It does not cache content, making it ideal for dynamic responses that cannot be cached, and it integrates directly with an Application Load Balancer in a single Region.

Answer

S3 Cross-Region Replication

Answer

CloudFront only with long TTLs

Answer

AWS Backup cross-Region copy

Question 16

A inventory service exposes a static website from S3 and CloudFront. Users should still receive cached pages if the S3 origin has a short outage. Which feature helps most? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.

Accepted Answer

CloudFront caching with appropriate TTLs. CloudFront caching with appropriate TTLs allows cached responses to be served to users even when the S3 origin is temporarily unavailable. By setting a minimum TTL (e.g., 0 seconds for fresh content, but a higher default or maximum TTL for stale content), CloudFront can continue delivering previously cached pages from edge locations during an S3 outage, ensuring high availability and resilience. This is a managed AWS-native feature that aligns with the architecture review board's preference.

Answer

AWS Backup Vault Lock

Answer

IAM Access Analyzer

Answer

S3 Select

Question 17

A ticket booking system stores uploaded documents in S3. The business requires a copy in another AWS Region for disaster recovery. What should be configured? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.

Accepted Answer

S3 Cross-Region Replication with versioning enabled. S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) automatically replicates objects from a source bucket in one AWS Region to a destination bucket in another Region, providing a disaster recovery copy without custom scripts. Enabling versioning on both buckets is a prerequisite for CRR, ensuring that all object versions are replicated and that the destination bucket can maintain a complete history of changes.

Answer

S3 lifecycle transition to Glacier Flexible Retrieval

Answer

An EBS snapshot schedule

Answer

A CloudFront distribution

Question 18

A site serves static assets (JS/CSS) through CloudFront from an S3 origin. After a recent frontend change, CloudFront shows a cache hit ratio below 20%. In CloudFront access logs, requests to the same asset URL path differ by a query parameter named rnd (a random value appended by the app on every request). The origin content is identical regardless of rnd. What is the best CloudFront configuration change to restore effective caching?

Accepted Answer

Create a custom CloudFront Cache Policy that does not include the rnd query parameter in the cache key (whitelist only required parameters, or forward no query strings).. The rnd query parameter makes each request appear unique to CloudFront, causing a cache miss for every request even though the underlying content is identical. By creating a custom cache policy that either forwards no query strings or whitelists only required parameters, CloudFront will ignore the rnd parameter when computing the cache key, allowing it to serve cached responses and dramatically improve the cache hit ratio.

Answer

Increase the origin response Cache-Control max-age header on S3 so CloudFront caches longer even with different rnd values.

Answer

Disable compression on CloudFront so the response body is identical byte-for-byte and cache hits improve.

Answer

Switch the origin from S3 to an ALB so CloudFront can cache based on ALB target health checks instead of the query string.

Question 19

A video platform uses Amazon Aurora. The workload has many short-lived database connections from Lambda functions, causing connection storms. What should be added? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.

Accepted Answer

RDS Proxy. RDS Proxy is the correct choice because it manages a pool of reusable database connections, allowing Lambda functions to share and reuse connections rather than opening and closing them with each invocation. This eliminates connection storms by buffering short-lived connections from Lambda and reducing the load on the Aurora database, all as a fully managed AWS-native service.

Answer

S3 Select

Answer

An internet gateway

Answer

A larger Route 53 hosted zone

Question 20

A web API runs on an Auto Scaling group (ASG) behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). During traffic spikes, users experience request timeouts even though CPU stays below 40%. After investigation, you find the ASG often has too few healthy targets to handle the current request rate. Which change will best improve responsiveness during spikes?

Accepted Answer

Create a target tracking scaling policy using an ALB metric such as RequestCountPerTarget or TargetResponseTime.. Option B is correct because the issue is that the ASG has too few healthy targets to handle the request rate, even though CPU is low. A target tracking scaling policy based on RequestCountPerTarget or TargetResponseTime directly aligns scaling with the ALB's view of demand, ensuring the ASG adds instances when request rates spike, regardless of CPU utilization. This addresses the root cause—insufficient capacity to serve incoming requests—rather than relying on a metric (CPU) that does not reflect the bottleneck.

Answer

Keep the ASG scaling policy based on CPU utilization, but increase the ASG min capacity by 50%.

Answer

Enable EC2 detailed monitoring for one-minute granularity and keep CPU scaling.

Answer

Switch to scaling based on the ASG network out bytes metric only, ignoring ALB response metrics.