SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Test 27 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company runs a containerized microservices application on Amazon ECS with Fargate launch type. The application experiences intermittent latency spikes. The team wants to capture network traffic between containers for troubleshooting. Which solution should they implement?

Accepted Answer

Enable VPC Flow Logs on the ENIs attached to the ECS tasks.. Option D is correct because using Amazon ECS task networking with VPC and enabling VPC Flow Logs captures network traffic metadata. Option A is wrong because AWS X-Ray captures application-level traces, not network packets. Option B is wrong because CloudWatch Logs agent captures logs, not network traffic. Option C is wrong because ECS Exec allows shell access but not traffic capture.

Answer

Enable AWS X-Ray tracing on the ECS tasks.

Answer

Configure the awslogs driver to send container logs to CloudWatch Logs.

Answer

Use Amazon ECS Exec to access containers and run tcpdump.

Question 2

A company's security team wants to ensure that all S3 buckets are encrypted at rest. They have thousands of existing buckets. Which approach should a Solutions Architect use to identify noncompliant buckets?

Accepted Answer

Create an AWS Config rule to evaluate S3 bucket encryption settings.. Option B is correct because AWS Config has managed rules to check S3 bucket encryption. Option A is wrong because Trusted Advisor checks only a subset of buckets. Option C is wrong because S3 Inventory provides object metadata, not encryption status. Option D is wrong because CloudTrail logs API calls, not current state.

Answer

Use AWS Trusted Advisor to check bucket encryption.

Answer

Analyze AWS CloudTrail logs for PutBucketEncryption API calls.

Answer

Enable S3 Inventory to list all objects and their encryption status.

Question 3

A company runs a web application on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group. The application stores session data in an Amazon ElastiCache for Redis cluster. The operations team reports that after scaling events, users lose their sessions. Which TWO actions should the Solutions Architect take to resolve this issue?

Accepted Answer

Enable sticky sessions (session affinity) on the Application Load Balancer.. Options A and C are correct: Sticky sessions ensure requests from a user go to the same instance, and placing ElastiCache outside the ASG ensures it persists. Option B is unnecessary because Redis replication does not address session loss during scaling. Option D is wrong because session stickiness at ALB is already implied but not sufficient without persistent cache. Option E is wrong because DynamoDB is not necessary.

Answer

Use a Network Load Balancer instead of an Application Load Balancer.

Answer

Store session data in Amazon DynamoDB.

Answer

Enable replication in the ElastiCache cluster to handle failover.

Question 4

A company is migrating a legacy application to AWS. The application requires a relational database with high I/O and low latency. The database size is 2 TB and growing. The Solutions Architect must choose a storage solution that provides the best price-performance. Which TWO solutions meet these requirements?

Accepted Answer

Use Amazon Aurora with I/O-Optimized cluster configuration.. Options A and C are correct: RDS with Provisioned IOPS provides consistent low latency, and Aurora with I/O-Optimized provides high I/O at lower cost for high I/O workloads. Option B is wrong because gp3 is general purpose, not best for high I/O. Option D is wrong because DynamoDB is NoSQL. Option E is wrong because Redshift is for analytics.

Answer

Use Amazon DynamoDB with provisioned capacity.

Answer

Use Amazon Redshift with dense compute nodes.

Answer

Use Amazon RDS with gp3 storage.

Question 5

A company is using AWS CodePipeline to automate deployments. The pipeline includes a build stage that compiles code and runs tests. The build stage fails intermittently due to network timeouts when downloading dependencies. Which THREE actions could improve the reliability of the build stage?

Accepted Answer

Use CodeBuild local cache to store dependencies across builds.. Options A, B, and D are correct: Caching dependencies, using a VPC with NAT gateway for consistent networking, and using CodeBuild local caching reduce failures. Option C is wrong because increasing timeout only delays failure. Option E is wrong because using a larger instance type may not fix network timeouts.

Answer

Increase the build timeout to allow more time for downloads.

Answer

Use a larger compute type for CodeBuild to improve network speed.

Question 6

An e-commerce company runs a customer-facing application on AWS. The application architecture includes an Application Load Balancer (ALB), EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group, and an Amazon RDS for MySQL Multi-AZ DB instance. The application uses a custom web server that stores session data in a local file system. During peak traffic, users experience session timeouts and errors. The operations team observes that the Auto Scaling group launches new instances and terminates old ones frequently. The team wants to improve the user experience and ensure session persistence. The Solutions Architect proposes to modify the application to store session data in an external store. However, due to a legacy code dependency, the application cannot be modified in the short term. Which solution should the Solutions Architect implement to resolve the session persistence issue without modifying the application?

Accepted Answer

Enable sticky sessions (session affinity) on the ALB and configure the Auto Scaling group to use a lifecycle hook to drain connections before instance termination.. Option A is correct because enabling sticky sessions on the ALB ensures that a user's requests are always routed to the same instance, preserving the local session files. Option B is wrong because ElastiCache still requires application code changes to use it. Option C is wrong because DynamoDB also requires code changes. Option D is wrong because scaling down based on memory does not prevent session loss; it may cause more terminations.

Answer

Replace the local file system storage with an Amazon ElastiCache for Redis cluster that is external to the instances.

Answer

Store session data in Amazon DynamoDB and configure the application to use the DynamoDB session handler.

Answer

Configure the Auto Scaling group to scale down based on memory utilization rather than CPU, to reduce termination frequency.

Question 7

A company runs a batch processing application on AWS. The application reads input files from an S3 bucket, processes them on EC2 instances, and writes results to another S3 bucket. The processing job runs once a day and takes approximately 3 hours. The company wants to reduce costs and operational overhead. The Solutions Architect suggests using AWS Lambda for processing, but the processing time per file can exceed the Lambda maximum execution time of 15 minutes. The architect also considers using AWS Batch. The company wants to minimize the need for infrastructure management. Which solution should the Solutions Architect recommend?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS Batch with a managed compute environment that uses Spot Instances and a job queue.. Option B is correct because AWS Batch manages the compute environment, automatically scales, and handles long-running jobs without managing EC2 instances directly. Option A is wrong because Lambda has a 15-minute limit. Option C is wrong because it requires manual management of EC2 instances. Option D is wrong because Fargate launch type for ECS can run long tasks but requires more setup than AWS Batch for batch jobs.

Answer

Provision a fleet of EC2 instances and use Auto Scaling to manage the processing.

Answer

Use AWS Lambda with a larger memory allocation to increase CPU and reduce processing time.

Answer

Use Amazon ECS with Fargate launch type and run the processing as a task.

Question 8

A company runs a static website on Amazon S3 with a custom domain using Amazon Route 53. The website content is updated frequently by multiple developers. The company wants to implement a workflow where updates are automatically tested and deployed. They have existing CI/CD tools that integrate with AWS CodeCommit. The Solutions Architect needs to design a deployment pipeline that rebuilds the website only when changes are pushed to the main branch, and then invalidates the Amazon CloudFront cache if a CloudFront distribution is used. Which solution meets these requirements with the least operational overhead?

Accepted Answer

Use AWS CodePipeline with a source stage tied to CodeCommit, a build stage using AWS CodeBuild, and a deploy stage that syncs the S3 bucket and invalidates CloudFront.. Option A is correct because AWS CodePipeline integrated with CodeBuild and CodeCommit provides a fully managed CI/CD service. Option B is wrong because Lambda@Edge is for edge computing, not deployment. Option C is wrong because S3 triggers are for event notifications, not full CI/CD. Option D is wrong because CloudFormation is for infrastructure, not deployment pipeline.

Answer

Use AWS CloudFormation with a custom resource that triggers a build on CodeCommit push.

Answer

Configure an S3 event notification to invoke an AWS Lambda function that builds and deploys the website.

Answer

Use AWS Lambda@Edge to generate the website on the fly and cache at CloudFront.

Question 9

A development team deploys a web application on Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. The application experiences intermittent 503 errors. A Solutions Architect notices that the errors coincide with high CPU utilization on the EC2 instances. What is the MOST effective way to improve the application's availability?

Accepted Answer

Configure an Auto Scaling group for the EC2 instances with a scaling policy based on average CPU utilization.. Option C is correct because adding an Auto Scaling group with a scaling policy based on CPU utilization dynamically adjusts capacity to handle load spikes, reducing 503 errors. Option A is wrong because larger instances may not be cost-effective and do not address dynamic scaling. Option B is wrong because increasing the ALB idle timeout does not affect CPU utilization. Option D is wrong because reducing the health check interval may cause premature instance replacement without fixing the root cause.

Answer

Increase the idle timeout setting on the Application Load Balancer.

Answer

Decrease the health check interval on the Application Load Balancer.

Answer

Use larger EC2 instance types to handle the load.

Question 10

A company runs a critical application on Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL. The database performance has degraded over time. The Solutions Architect notices that read queries are slow and the DB instance's ReadIOPS metric is consistently high. Which action would improve read performance with minimal operational overhead?

Accepted Answer

Create an RDS read replica and redirect read queries to it.. Option A is correct because adding a read replica distributes read traffic off the primary instance, reducing ReadIOPS and improving query performance. Option B is wrong because increasing storage size does not directly improve IOPS or read performance. Option C is wrong because Multi-AZ is for high availability, not read scaling. Option D is wrong because switching to a different engine is unnecessary and would require application changes.

Answer

Increase the allocated storage of the DB instance.

Answer

Enable Multi-AZ deployment for the DB instance.

Answer

Migrate the database to Amazon Aurora with PostgreSQL compatibility.

Question 11

A company uses AWS Lambda functions within a VPC to process data from an Amazon SQS queue. The Lambda functions frequently timeout with the error 'Task timed out after 3.00 seconds'. The functions perform database operations on an RDS instance in the same VPC. The average database query takes 2 seconds. What is the MOST likely cause of the timeouts?

Accepted Answer

The VPC does not have a NAT gateway, so the Lambda function cannot poll the SQS queue.. Option D is correct because Lambda functions in a VPC require a NAT gateway or VPC endpoints to access the SQS API, which is outside the VPC. Without a NAT gateway, the function cannot poll the SQS queue, causing timeouts. Option A is wrong because Lambda can access RDS within the same VPC without issues. Option B is wrong because 3-second timeout should be sufficient for a 2-second query if network is fine. Option C is wrong because the RDS instance size does not affect network connectivity to SQS.

Answer

The Lambda function does not have the required VPC permissions to access the RDS instance.

Answer

The Lambda function timeout should be increased to accommodate database query time.

Answer

The RDS instance is under-provisioned and causing slow queries.

Question 12

A company is running a stateless web application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group. The application stores session data in an Amazon ElastiCache Redis cluster. After a recent deployment, users are being logged out frequently. What is the most likely cause?

Accepted Answer

The application is not using the ElastiCache cluster for session storage.. Option B is correct because if the application is not properly configured to use the ElastiCache cluster, session data may be lost on instance replacement or scaling events. Option A is wrong because the Auto Scaling group is configured, but the issue is session persistence. Option C is wrong because health checks do not affect session data. Option D is wrong because the ALB is not causing logout; the issue is session storage.

Answer

The Auto Scaling group's min size is too small.

Answer

The Elastic Load Balancer's health check is too aggressive.

Answer

The ElastiCache cluster's security group is blocking traffic from the ALB.

Question 13

A company's AWS CloudTrail logs are stored in an S3 bucket. A Solutions Architect needs to analyze the logs to identify API calls that created or modified IAM roles in the last 30 days. What is the MOST efficient way to perform this analysis?

Accepted Answer

Use Amazon Athena to run SQL queries on the logs.. Option C is correct because Amazon Athena can query CloudTrail logs stored in S3 using SQL, allowing efficient analysis without moving data. Option A is wrong because CloudWatch Logs Insights is for CloudWatch Logs, not S3. Option B is wrong because S3 Select can filter objects but is not designed for complex queries across multiple objects. Option D is wrong because exporting to a different account is unnecessary and adds complexity.

Answer

Use Amazon CloudWatch Logs Insights to query the logs.

Answer

Use an AWS Lambda function to process the logs and export to Amazon Redshift.

Answer

Use S3 Select to filter the records.

Question 14

A company runs a containerized microservices application on Amazon ECS using Fargate. The application includes a service that processes messages from an Amazon SQS queue. The service is CPU-bound and takes longer to process messages as the queue depth increases. The team wants to automatically scale the number of tasks based on the queue depth. Which solution is MOST effective?

Accepted Answer

Configure ECS Service Auto Scaling with a target tracking scaling policy based on the SQS queue's ApproximateNumberOfMessagesVisible metric.. Option B is correct because ECS Service Auto Scaling can use a target tracking scaling policy with the SQS ApproximateNumberOfMessagesVisible metric to scale the number of tasks. Option A is wrong because CloudWatch alarms on CPU can cause slow reaction. Option C is wrong because Lambda is not suitable for long-running CPU-bound tasks. Option D is wrong because adjusting CPU allocation does not address scaling; it's a vertical scaling approach.

Answer

Use an AWS Lambda function to poll the SQS queue and invoke a new task for each message.

Answer

Increase the CPU allocation for the task definition to process messages faster.

Answer

Use a CloudWatch alarm based on CPU utilization to trigger an Auto Scaling action.

Question 15

A company uses AWS CloudFormation to deploy infrastructure. A Solutions Architect needs to update a stack that includes an RDS DB instance. The update requires modifying the DB instance's storage type from gp2 to io1. What change should be made to the CloudFormation template to minimize downtime?

Accepted Answer

Modify the StorageType property in the CloudFormation template and perform a stack update.. Option B is correct because specifying 'UpdateReplacePolicy' does not exist; the correct approach is to allow modification of storage type without replacement. Option A is wrong because creating a new stack is unnecessary. Option C is wrong because DeletionPolicy affects stack deletion, not updates. Option D is correct because changing the 'StorageType' property in the template will trigger a modification that can be done online with minimal downtime.

Answer

Add an UpdateReplacePolicy attribute to the RDS resource.

Answer

Create a new stack with the updated storage type and migrate data.

Answer

Set the DeletionPolicy to Retain for the RDS resource.