SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Test 20 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company has a production AWS Lambda function that processes data from an Amazon SQS queue. The function often experiences throttling errors. The company wants to implement a solution to reduce throttling and improve processing performance. Which solution meets these requirements?

Choose an answer to begin — your selection is scored in the full session.

Accepted Answer

Increase the reserved concurrency for the Lambda function.. Increasing the reserved concurrency for the Lambda function guarantees that the function can process more invocations concurrently, reducing throttling errors. Option A is incorrect because SQS queues do not have a configurable concurrency limit; concurrency is managed at the Lambda function level. Option C is incorrect because distributing messages across multiple queues does not increase the function's concurrency; each queue invocation still counts toward the same reserved concurrency. Option D, increasing the batch size, can improve throughput per invocation but does not reduce throttling caused by insufficient concurrency.

Answer

Configure the SQS queue to use a higher concurrency limit.

Answer

Create additional SQS queues and distribute messages across them.

Answer

Increase the batch size of the Lambda event source mapping.

Question 2

A Solutions Architect is reviewing an Amazon S3 bucket policy that grants access to users from another AWS account. The policy uses the Principal element with "AWS": "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:root". The users in the other account are unable to access the bucket. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The policy must specify the IAM user ARN, not the root user ARN.. The root user ARN does not grant access to individual IAM users; the policy must allow the entire account or specific user ARNs. Option B is wrong because the bucket policy can refer to another account. Option C is wrong because S3 does not require VPC endpoints for cross-account access. Option D is wrong because the bucket policy can use IAM user ARNs.

Answer

The bucket policy must also include a VPC endpoint condition.

Answer

Cross-account access is not supported with bucket policies.

Answer

The bucket policy must use the CanonicalUser ID instead of the account ID.

Question 3

A company is running a web application on Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. The application experiences high latency during peak hours. The company wants to improve performance by enabling HTTP/2. What is the simplest way to achieve this?

Accepted Answer

Enable HTTP/2 on the Application Load Balancer's HTTPS listener.. Enabling HTTP/2 on the Application Load Balancer's HTTPS listener is the simplest way to improve performance during peak hours because ALB natively supports HTTP/2 and can be configured directly in the listener settings without additional infrastructure. Option A is incorrect because configuring EC2 instances to support HTTP/2 does not affect the load balancer's protocol handling. Option B is incorrect because adding a CloudFront distribution in front of the ALB is more complex and does not leverage the ALB's built-in HTTP/2 support. Option D is incorrect because Network Load Balancers do not support HTTP/2; upgrading to NLB would not achieve the desired performance improvement.

Answer

Configure the EC2 instances to support HTTP/2.

Answer

Place an Amazon CloudFront distribution in front of the ALB and enable HTTP/2.

Answer

Upgrade the load balancer to a Network Load Balancer.

Question 4

A company uses an AWS CodePipeline to deploy a serverless application. The pipeline includes a build stage that runs on AWS CodeBuild and a deploy stage that updates an AWS Lambda function. The company wants to add a manual approval step before the deploy stage. What is the most efficient way to implement this?

Accepted Answer

Add a manual approval action in the CodePipeline stage before deploy.. AWS CodePipeline has a built-in manual approval action that can be added as a stage before the deploy stage, providing the most efficient way to add manual approval. Option A is incorrect because using a Lambda function for approval is unnecessarily complex compared to the built-in action. Option B is incorrect because a CloudFormation wait condition is not designed for approval workflows in CodePipeline. Option C is incorrect because an SNS topic can notify approvers but does not integrate directly as an approval action in CodePipeline; the manual approval action is the native solution.

Answer

Add an AWS Lambda function that sends an email for approval.

Answer

Use an AWS CloudFormation stack with a wait condition.

Answer

Configure an Amazon SNS topic to notify approvers.

Question 5

A company is using Amazon DynamoDB as the primary database for a web application. The application experiences occasional throttling on writes. The company wants to implement a solution that automatically increases write capacity during traffic spikes. Which solution should they use?

Accepted Answer

Enable DynamoDB Auto Scaling for write capacity.. DynamoDB Auto Scaling automatically adjusts the provisioned write capacity based on actual traffic patterns, preventing throttling during spikes while optimizing costs. Option A is wrong because On-Demand capacity mode handles spikes but incurs higher costs and does not involve manual auto-scaling configuration. Option B is wrong because DAX is an in-memory cache that reduces read latency, not a scaling solution for write capacity. Option C is wrong because Global Tables provide multi-region replication and disaster recovery but do not address write throttling in a single region.

Answer

Switch to DynamoDB On-Demand capacity mode.

Answer

Implement DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) for caching.

Answer

Use DynamoDB Global Tables to distribute writes.

Question 6

A company has a production Amazon ECS service running on Fargate. The service needs to be updated to use a new task definition with different environment variables. The company wants to perform a rolling update with minimal impact. What is the correct way to update the service?

Accepted Answer

Update the service with the new task definition and use a rolling update deployment controller.. Updating the ECS service with the new task definition while using the rolling update deployment controller performs a rolling update with minimal downtime. Option A is wrong because deleting and recreating the service causes downtime. Option B is wrong because modifying the task definition alone does not trigger a deployment; you must update the service to use the new revision. Option D is wrong because creating a new service duplicates resources and is unnecessary.

Answer

Delete the existing service and recreate it with the new task definition.

Answer

Modify the task definition and then restart the service.

Answer

Create a new service with the new task definition and delete the old one.

Question 7

A company is using an AWS Direct Connect connection to access its VPC. The company is experiencing intermittent connectivity issues. The Solutions Architect suspects a routing problem. Which AWS service can help diagnose the issue by providing real-time metrics and logs?

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudWatch with Direct Connect metrics. Amazon CloudWatch with Direct Connect metrics (Option A) is correct because it provides real-time metrics and logs specifically for AWS Direct Connect connections, such as connection state, latency, and packet loss. This helps diagnose routing and connectivity issues. VPC Flow Logs (Option B) capture IP traffic metadata within the VPC but do not include Direct Connect-specific metrics like BGP status or link health. AWS CloudTrail (Option C) records API activity, not network-level diagnostics. AWS Trusted Advisor (Option D) offers cost optimization and security recommendations but does not provide real-time network monitoring.

Answer

VPC Flow Logs

Answer

AWS CloudTrail

Answer

AWS Trusted Advisor

Question 8

A company is running a critical application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group. The application stores data on an Amazon EBS volume. To improve recovery time in the event of an AZ failure, which TWO actions should the company take? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) from the instance.. Options A and E are correct. Creating an AMI from the instance (A) allows you to quickly launch a new instance in another AZ with the same configuration, improving recovery time. Configuring the Auto Scaling group to launch instances in multiple AZs (E) ensures that the application is already running in another AZ, minimizing downtime during an AZ failure. Option B is incorrect because EBS multi-attach is for attaching a volume to multiple instances in the same AZ, not for cross-AZ recovery. Option C is incorrect because you cannot directly copy an EBS volume to another AZ; you must create a snapshot and then create a volume in the target AZ within the same region. Option D is incorrect because copying snapshots to another region is designed for regional disasters, not for within-region AZ failures; for AZ failure, you would restore snapshots within the same region.

Answer

Use EBS multi-attach to attach the volume to instances in another AZ.

Answer

Copy the EBS volume to another AZ using the AWS Management Console.

Answer

Take regular EBS snapshots and copy them to another region.

Question 9

A company is using AWS CodePipeline to deploy a web application. The pipeline includes a build stage and a deploy stage. The company wants to add a test stage that runs automated integration tests after the build stage and before the deploy stage. Which THREE actions should the company take? (Choose three.)

Accepted Answer

Configure AWS CodeBuild to run the integration tests as part of the test stage.. Options A, C, and E are correct. Option A: AWS CodeBuild is well-suited for running integration tests as part of a CodePipeline test stage. Option C: Adding a test stage between build and deploy is the correct way to insert testing into the pipeline. Option E: A manual approval step after the test stage provides a safety checkpoint before deployment. Option B is incorrect because CloudFormation is used for infrastructure provisioning, not for running tests. Option D is incorrect because Lambda functions are not designed for running integration tests directly; they are better for lightweight event-driven tasks.

Answer

Use AWS CloudFormation to create a test environment.

Answer

Use an AWS Lambda function to run the integration tests.

Question 10

A company is migrating a legacy application to AWS. The application requires a relational database with high availability and automated backups. Which TWO AWS services should the company consider? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Amazon RDS with Multi-AZ deployment. Options B and E are correct. Option B: Amazon RDS with Multi-AZ deployment provides high availability through automatic failover to a standby instance and automated backups. Option E: Amazon Aurora is a relational database engine compatible with MySQL and PostgreSQL, offering built-in high availability, automated backups, and fault tolerance. Option A is incorrect because Amazon Redshift is a data warehouse, not a relational database for transactional workloads. Option C is incorrect because Amazon ElastiCache is an in-memory caching service, not a relational database. Option D is incorrect because Amazon DynamoDB is a NoSQL database, not relational.

Answer

Amazon Redshift

Answer

Amazon ElastiCache

Answer

Amazon DynamoDB

Question 11

An IAM policy is attached to an IAM user. The user reports being unable to download objects from the bucket 'example-bucket' when connecting from their office IP address 203.0.113.5. What is the most likely reason?

Accepted Answer

The user's IP address is not in the allowed range.. The IAM policy likely includes a condition that restricts access to a specific IP range (e.g., 192.0.2.0/24), and the user's office IP 203.0.113.5 is not within that allowed range. Option B is incorrect because 'aws:SourceIp' is a valid condition key in IAM policies. Option C is incorrect because the resource ARN (arn:aws:s3:::example-bucket/*) is correctly specified. Option D is incorrect because the s3:GetObject action is spelled correctly; the issue is the condition, not the action name.

Answer

The condition key 'aws:SourceIp' is invalid.

Answer

The resource ARN is incorrect.

Answer

The s3:GetObject action is misspelled.

Question 12

A Solutions Architect runs the above AWS CLI command and gets the output shown. The instance is 'running' but the application is not accessible. What should the Solutions Architect check next?

Accepted Answer

Check the security group rules for the instance.. The instance is running but the application is inaccessible, which often indicates that security group rules are not allowing the required inbound traffic. Option A is wrong because the instance is reported as 'running', so it is not terminated. Option B is wrong because the command output successfully returns instance details, meaning the instance ID is correct. Option C is wrong because status checks relate to the health of the instance OS and system, not network access.

Answer

Check if the instance is terminated.

Answer

Check if the instance ID is correct.

Answer

Check the instance status checks.

Question 13

A CloudFormation stack update failed with the above error. What is the likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The runtime is no longer supported by AWS Lambda.. The error message explicitly states that the runtime 'nodejs14.x' is not supported. Option A is wrong because the S3 bucket is not the issue. Option B is wrong because the role ARN is correct. Option C is wrong because the timeout is within limits.

Answer

The S3 bucket does not contain the zip file.

Answer

The IAM role ARN is incorrect.

Answer

The timeout value is too high.

Question 14

A company is using AWS Lambda functions to process files uploaded to an S3 bucket. Recently, the processing time has increased significantly. A solutions architect notices that the Lambda functions are using the default VPC configuration. What is the MOST likely cause of the performance degradation?

Accepted Answer

Lambda function is attached to a VPC, causing network latency for S3 API calls.. Lambda functions in a VPC use an Elastic Network Interface (ENI) in a private subnet, which can add latency for internet-bound requests. Options A, C, and D do not directly cause increased processing time.

Answer

Lambda function is using too much memory.

Answer

S3 bucket has versioning enabled, causing extra overhead.

Answer

S3 bucket is in a different region.

Question 15

A company runs a web application on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The application experiences periodic spikes in traffic. The operations team wants to ensure that the application can handle the spikes without manual intervention. What is the MOST cost-effective solution?

Accepted Answer

Create a target tracking scaling policy using the ALB RequestCountPerTarget metric.. A target tracking scaling policy automatically adjusts capacity based on a specific metric, and using the ALB RequestCountPerTarget metric is appropriate for handling traffic spikes in a cost-effective manner. This policy maintains the desired metric value by adding or removing instances as needed, without manual intervention. Option A is incorrect because a scheduled scaling policy assumes predictable peaks, but the traffic spikes are periodic and may not follow a fixed schedule. Option C is incorrect because manual intervention is not cost-effective and defeats the purpose of automation. Option D is incorrect because a simple scaling policy based on CPU utilization may not react quickly enough to sudden traffic spikes and could be less cost-effective than target tracking.

Answer

Use a scheduled scaling policy to add instances during predicted peak hours.

Answer

Manually add instances when traffic spikes are expected.

Answer

Use a simple scaling policy based on CPU utilization.