SAP-C02 Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization Practice Test 19 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A company is migrating a critical application to AWS and needs to ensure high availability across two Availability Zones. The application runs on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The database is an on-premises SQL Server that will be migrated later. Which architecture provides high availability for the application tier during the migration?

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

Accepted Answer

Deploy EC2 instances in two AZs behind an ALB with cross-zone load balancing enabled.. Deploying EC2 instances in two Availability Zones behind an Application Load Balancer with cross-zone load balancing enabled provides high availability for the application tier. The ALB distributes traffic across healthy instances in both AZs, and cross-zone load balancing ensures even distribution even if one AZ has more instances. This architecture survives an AZ failure because the ALB routes traffic to the remaining AZ, and the application remains available.

Answer

Deploy EC2 instances in a single AZ with an Auto Scaling group.

Answer

Deploy EC2 instances in two AZs behind a Network Load Balancer (NLB).

Answer

Use Amazon Route 53 weighted routing to distribute traffic to instances in two AZs.

Question 2

A company is migrating a legacy .NET application to AWS. The application uses Windows authentication and connects to an on-premises SQL Server database. The company wants to minimize code changes. Which migration strategy is most appropriate?

Accepted Answer

Rehost the application on EC2 Windows instances and use Amazon RDS for SQL Server.. Rehosting the application on EC2 Windows instances and using Amazon RDS for SQL Server preserves Windows authentication and the existing SQL Server engine, minimizing code changes. This is the classic 'lift and shift' approach that keeps the application's dependencies intact.

Answer

Replatform the application to use Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL with AWS DMS.

Answer

Refactor the application into microservices using AWS Lambda and Amazon DynamoDB.

Answer

Re-platform the application to run on Amazon Linux and use Amazon RDS for MySQL.

Question 3

A company wants to assess its on-premises environment for migration to AWS. The company needs to collect utilization data for servers and applications. Which AWS service should the company use?

Accepted Answer

AWS Application Discovery Service. AWS Application Discovery Service collects server and application utilization data from on-premises environments to support migration planning. Option A is wrong because AWS Migration Hub tracks migrations but does not perform discovery. Option B is wrong because AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) is for migrating databases, not for collecting utilization data. Option D is wrong because AWS Server Migration Service (SMS) is deprecated and was used for migrating individual servers, not for discovery.

Answer

AWS Migration Hub

Answer

AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)

Answer

AWS Server Migration Service (SMS)

Question 4

A company is migrating a multi-tier web application to AWS and wants to use Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to automate provisioning. Which AWS services can the company use to define and manage infrastructure declaratively? (Choose TWO.)

Accepted Answer

AWS CloudFormation. AWS CloudFormation (B) is correct because it lets you define infrastructure declaratively in JSON or YAML templates, and CloudFormation provisions and manages those resources as stacks. AWS Cloud Development Kit (CDK) (D) is also correct because it allows infrastructure to be defined declaratively using familiar programming languages, which then synthesizes into CloudFormation templates for deployment. AWS Elastic Beanstalk (A) is not the best fit because it is a PaaS that deploys applications from code or configuration but does not itself provide a general declarative IaC language for defining arbitrary infrastructure. AWS OpsWorks (C) uses Chef/Puppet for configuration management and is more procedural/imperative in practice, not a declarative IaC service in the CloudFormation/CDK sense. AWS CodeDeploy (E) is a deployment orchestration service for applications, not an infrastructure definition or provisioning service.

Answer

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Answer

AWS OpsWorks

Answer

AWS CodeDeploy

Question 5

A company is migrating a legacy application to AWS and needs to decouple the application components. The application currently uses a monolithic architecture with direct calls between components. Which AWS services can help decouple the components? (Choose THREE.)

Accepted Answer

Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS). Amazon SQS (A) is correct because it provides a fully managed message queue that lets producers and consumers communicate asynchronously, removing direct component-to-component calls and buffering messages for reliable decoupling. Amazon SNS (B) is correct because it implements the publish/subscribe pattern, allowing a publisher to fan out notifications to multiple subscribers without knowing or directly invoking them, which breaks tight coupling. Amazon EventBridge (E) is correct because it is a serverless event bus that routes events from producers to consumers based on rules, enabling event-driven decoupling between otherwise independent components. AWS Step Functions (C) is a workflow orchestration service that coordinates components but still invokes them in a defined sequence, so it does not by itself decouple them. Amazon Kinesis Data Streams (D) is a real-time streaming service for ingesting and processing high-volume data, not a general-purpose application decoupling mechanism in this scenario.

Answer

AWS Step Functions

Answer

Amazon Kinesis Data Streams

Question 6

A company attaches the IAM policy shown in the exhibit to an IAM user. The user tries to upload an object to my-bucket using the AWS CLI without the --ssl flag (i.e., using HTTP). What will happen?

Accepted Answer

The upload fails with an explicit deny because of the Deny statement.. The policy contains an explicit Deny statement that triggers when the request is made over HTTP (aws:SecureTransport is false). In AWS IAM, an explicit Deny always overrides any Allow, regardless of other statements or conditions. Because the CLI upload without --ssl uses HTTP, the Deny condition matches and the request is rejected with an explicit deny — not an implicit one.

Answer

The upload fails with an implicit denial because the Allow condition is not met.

Answer

The upload succeeds because the Allow statement grants s3:PutObject.

Answer

The upload succeeds because there is no explicit Deny for s3:PutObject.

Question 7

A company is migrating a monolithic e-commerce application to a microservices architecture on AWS. The migration must minimize downtime and allow rollback. Which migration strategy should the company use?

Accepted Answer

Strangler fig pattern. The strangler fig pattern incrementally replaces pieces of a monolith with microservices by routing traffic through a facade, allowing new services to be introduced alongside the legacy system. This minimizes downtime because the monolith keeps serving unaffected functionality while migrated components go live, and it enables rollback by simply routing traffic back to the old path. It is the standard AWS-recommended approach for low-risk monolith decomposition.

Answer

Refactor

Answer

Big bang migration

Answer

Rehost (lift and shift)

Question 8

A company is migrating a data warehouse from on-premises to Amazon Redshift. The current workload runs complex queries that join large tables. The company wants to optimize query performance after migration. Which design should the company implement?

Accepted Answer

Use distribution style KEY on the join columns of large tables. Distribution style KEY on join columns ensures data is co-located, minimizing data movement. Option A (AUTO) may not use the optimal distribution strategy. Option B (EVEN) distributes rows evenly, which can cause significant data movement across nodes. Option C (ALL) is not suitable for large tables because it duplicates the entire table on every node, leading to high storage and performance issues.

Answer

Use distribution style AUTO and let Redshift decide

Answer

Use distribution style EVEN on all tables

Answer

Use distribution style ALL on all large tables

Question 9

A company is modernizing a legacy application by breaking it into microservices. The application uses a shared MySQL database. The team wants to refactor the database to use Amazon DynamoDB for better scalability. Which migration strategy should be used?

Accepted Answer

Use the Strangler Fig pattern to incrementally migrate data to DynamoDB. The Strangler Fig pattern is the correct migration strategy because it allows for incremental and iterative migration of data and business logic from the legacy MySQL database to Amazon DynamoDB without a full cutover. This approach minimizes risk and enables the team to gradually refactor the application while maintaining continuous operation. Option A (rehost to Amazon RDS) would still use a relational database and not achieve the goal of moving to DynamoDB. Option C (replatform to Amazon Aurora) also retains a relational model. Option D (retire the existing database and switch to DynamoDB) is risky as it requires a complete cutover without incremental transition.

Answer

Rehost the database to Amazon RDS

Answer

Replatform the database to Amazon Aurora

Answer

Retire the existing database and switch to DynamoDB

Question 10

A company is migrating a large Hadoop cluster to Amazon EMR. The cluster uses HDFS for storage. The company wants to decouple compute and storage to reduce costs. Which approach should the company take?

Accepted Answer

Use Amazon S3 as the data store and EMRFS. Using Amazon S3 as the data store with EMRFS is correct because it decouples compute and storage — EMR clusters can read/write directly to S3, and the cluster can be terminated without data loss. This reduces costs by allowing transient clusters and eliminating HDFS replication overhead.

Answer

Use Amazon FSx for Lustre

Answer

Use Amazon EFS for HDFS

Answer

Use EBS volumes for HDFS

Question 11

A company is migrating a legacy application to AWS. The application requires a relational database. The company wants to minimize operational overhead. Which TWO options should the company consider? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Amazon Aurora. Amazon Aurora (B) is correct because it is a fully managed relational database engine compatible with MySQL and PostgreSQL, and AWS handles provisioning, patching, backups, replication, and scaling, which directly minimizes operational overhead for a relational workload. Amazon RDS (D) is also correct because it is a managed relational database service that automates routine administration tasks such as backups, software patching, and Multi-AZ failover, making it a low-overhead fit for a legacy relational application. AWS Database Migration Service (A) is a migration tool rather than a target database, so it does not itself satisfy the application's relational database requirement. Amazon S3 (C) is object storage, not a relational database, so it cannot run the legacy application's relational workload. Amazon EC2 with a self-managed database (E) requires the company to handle installation, patching, backups, and scaling, which increases rather than minimizes operational overhead.

Answer

AWS Database Migration Service

Answer

Amazon S3

Answer

Amazon EC2 with self-managed database

Question 12

A company wants to migrate a legacy .NET application to AWS. The application uses Windows authentication and requires a shared file system. Which TWO AWS services should the company use to modernize this application? (Choose two.)

Accepted Answer

Amazon FSx for Windows File Server. Amazon FSx for Windows File Server (A) is correct because it provides a fully managed native Windows file system supporting SMB protocol, NTFS permissions, and Active Directory integration, which satisfies the application's Windows authentication and shared file system requirements. AWS Elastic Beanstalk (B) is correct because it supports deploying and scaling .NET applications on Windows Server environments (IIS), allowing the legacy app to be modernized with minimal code changes while preserving Windows authentication. Amazon S3 (C) is object storage and does not provide SMB shares or native Windows ACL/authentication semantics needed for a shared file system. Amazon EBS (D) provides block storage volumes attached to a single EC2 instance, not a shared file system across multiple instances. AWS Lambda (E) is a serverless compute service that does not support Windows authentication or persistent shared file system access in this legacy .NET context.

Answer

Amazon S3

Answer

Amazon EBS

Answer

AWS Lambda

Question 13

A company is planning to migrate its on-premises data warehouse to AWS. The data warehouse runs on a large Oracle RAC cluster with complex stored procedures and ETL jobs. The company wants to minimize migration effort while gaining cloud benefits. Which AWS service should be used as the target?

Accepted Answer

Amazon Redshift. Amazon Redshift is a petabyte-scale data warehouse service that is optimized for analytical workloads and supports complex SQL queries, stored procedures, and ETL jobs. It is designed to handle large data volumes and can minimize migration effort by providing compatibility with existing SQL and ETL tools. DynamoDB is a NoSQL database not suitable for complex stored procedures, RDS for Oracle is not a data warehouse and may not scale as needed, and Aurora PostgreSQL is an OLTP database, not a data warehouse.

Answer

Amazon DynamoDB

Answer

Amazon RDS for Oracle

Answer

Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL

Question 14

A company is migrating a legacy .NET application to AWS. The application uses Windows authentication and has a dependency on a local file system. The company wants to minimize code changes. Which combination of services should be used?

Accepted Answer

Amazon EC2 Windows instances with Amazon FSx for Windows File Server. The application uses Windows authentication and depends on a local file system, so the target must support native Windows ACLs and SMB. Amazon EC2 Windows instances provide the Windows OS, and Amazon FSx for Windows File Server provides a fully managed SMB file system with Active Directory integration, preserving Windows authentication and file semantics with minimal code changes.

Answer

Amazon EC2 Windows instances with Amazon EFS

Answer

AWS Elastic Beanstalk with Amazon EFS

Answer

Amazon Lightsail with local instance storage

Question 15

A company is migrating a critical application to AWS and needs to ensure business continuity during the migration. The application must remain available with minimal downtime. Which AWS service should be used to replicate data continuously?

Accepted Answer

AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication. AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication (Option B) provides continuous, near-real-time data replication from source to target, enabling minimal-downtime cutover during a migration. It supports homogeneous and heterogeneous migrations and keeps the target in sync until the application is switched over, which is exactly what business continuity during migration requires.

Answer

AWS Direct Connect

Answer

Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration

Answer

AWS Snowball Edge