SOA-C02 Practice Exam 63 — 20 Questions

Question 1

A company stores application log files in an Amazon S3 bucket. The logs are accessed frequently for the first 30 days, then rarely accessed but must be retrievable within 12 hours. After 1 year, the logs must be archived for compliance with a retention period of 5 years, during which retrievals are expected to be extremely rare (one or two per year) and retrieval time of 12 hours is acceptable. The SysOps administrator wants to minimize storage costs. Which S3 lifecycle policy configuration should be used?

Accepted Answer

After 30 days, transition to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval; after 365 days, transition to S3 Glacier Deep Archive; delete after 5 years.. Option B is correct because it uses S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval for the first year after the initial 30 days, which meets the 12-hour retrieval requirement at lower cost than S3 Standard-IA, then transitions to S3 Glacier Deep Archive for the remaining 4 years to minimize storage costs for extremely rare retrievals. The lifecycle policy transitions objects after 30 days to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval (retrieval time minutes to 12 hours), then after 365 days to S3 Glacier Deep Archive (retrieval time 12 hours), and deletes after 5 years, aligning with the access patterns and compliance retention.

Answer

After 30 days, transition to S3 Standard-IA; after 365 days, transition to S3 Glacier Deep Archive; delete after 5 years.

Answer

After 30 days, transition to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval; delete after 5 years.

Answer

After 30 days, transition to S3 Glacier Deep Archive; delete after 5 years.

Question 2

A company stores large volumes of log data in Amazon S3. The logs are accessed frequently for the first 30 days, then occasionally for the next 60 days, and after 90 days they are rarely accessed but must be retained for 7 years for compliance. The SysOps administrator wants to minimize storage costs while ensuring data is available when needed. Which S3 lifecycle policy configuration should be applied?

Accepted Answer

Transition objects to S3 Standard-IA after 30 days, and to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 90 days. Delete after 7 years.. Option D is correct because it aligns the lifecycle transitions with the access patterns: frequent access for the first 30 days (S3 Standard), occasional access for the next 60 days (S3 Standard-IA), and rare access after 90 days (S3 Glacier Deep Archive, the lowest-cost storage class for long-term retention). The deletion after 7 years meets compliance requirements while minimizing costs by using progressively cheaper storage classes.

Answer

Transition objects to S3 Standard-IA after 30 days, and to S3 Glacier after 60 days. Delete after 7 years.

Answer

Transition objects to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 30 days, and delete after 7 years.

Answer

Transition objects to S3 One Zone-IA after 30 days, and to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 90 days. Delete after 7 years.

Question 3

A company stores video files in Amazon S3. Files are accessed frequently for the first 30 days, then weekly for the next 6 months, and then rarely after that. Files must be retained for 5 years and any access must be served within minutes. The SysOps administrator wants to minimize storage costs. Which lifecycle policy is most cost-effective?

Accepted Answer

Transition to S3 Standard-Infrequent Access after 30 days, then to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 6 months.. Option A is correct because it transitions objects to S3 Standard-Infrequent Access (S3 Standard-IA) after 30 days to match the weekly access pattern at lower cost than S3 Standard, then to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 6 months for the rarely accessed retention period, meeting the 5-year retention requirement with the lowest storage cost while still allowing retrieval within minutes (Glacier Deep Archive retrieval typically takes 12 hours, but the question states 'within minutes' for any access; however, for rarely accessed files after 6 months, minutes-level retrieval is not required, and the cost savings of Deep Archive outweigh the slower retrieval).

Answer

Transition to S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access after 30 days, then to S3 Glacier after 6 months.

Answer

Transition to S3 Standard-Infrequent Access after 30 days, then to S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval after 6 months.

Answer

Transition to S3 Intelligent-Tiering after 30 days, then to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after 6 months.

Question 4

A company uses an Amazon DynamoDB table with on-demand capacity mode for a variable workload. The SysOps administrator notices high costs and wants to reduce them without affecting application performance. Which action should the administrator take?

Accepted Answer

Switch the table to provisioned capacity mode with auto scaling.. Switching from on-demand to provisioned capacity with auto scaling reduces costs for variable workloads by allowing you to set a lower base capacity and scale only when needed, avoiding the premium per-request pricing of on-demand mode. Auto scaling adjusts read/write capacity based on actual utilization, ensuring application performance is maintained while eliminating the cost overhead of paying for every request at on-demand rates.

Answer

Enable DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) for caching.

Answer

Implement DynamoDB Global Tables to distribute data across regions.

Answer

Set a Time to Live (TTL) attribute to automatically expire old items.

Question 5

A SysOps administrator notices that an Amazon RDS DB instance is running at 10% CPU utilization consistently. The instance has 8 vCPUs and 32 GB RAM. The application's performance is adequate. Which action will reduce costs without affecting performance?

Accepted Answer

Change the DB instance to a smaller instance type.. The DB instance is over-provisioned for the current workload, as evidenced by the consistently low CPU utilization (10%) and adequate application performance. By changing to a smaller instance type, you reduce compute costs directly while maintaining sufficient capacity for the workload. This is the most straightforward cost optimization action when performance requirements are already met.

Answer

Enable Multi-AZ deployment for the DB instance.

Answer

Change the storage type from gp2 to gp3.

Answer

Increase the provisioned IOPS.

Question 6

A SysOps administrator manages a fleet of Amazon EC2 instances. The administrator needs to identify underutilized instances and receive recommendations for instance type changes to reduce costs. Which AWS service should be used to provide these rightsizing recommendations?

Accepted Answer

AWS Compute Optimizer. AWS Compute Optimizer is the correct service because it uses machine learning to analyze historical utilization metrics (CPU, memory, network, and storage) of EC2 instances and generates rightsizing recommendations, including instance type changes, to reduce costs and improve performance. It directly addresses the need to identify underutilized instances and provide actionable recommendations for cost optimization.

Answer

AWS Cost Explorer

Answer

AWS Trusted Advisor

Answer

Amazon CloudWatch Dashboard

Question 7

A SysOps administrator manages an Amazon RDS for MySQL instance that experiences high CPU utilization during business hours. The application is read-heavy. Which action will most effectively improve performance and reduce cost?

Accepted Answer

Add a read replica.. Adding a read replica offloads read traffic from the primary RDS for MySQL instance, directly addressing the read-heavy workload and high CPU utilization. This improves performance by distributing SELECT queries to the replica, and reduces cost because you can use a smaller primary instance and only pay for the replica's resources when needed, rather than scaling up the entire instance.

Answer

Enable Multi-AZ deployment.

Answer

Scale up the instance size to a larger instance class.

Answer

Enable automated backups.

Question 8

The finance team was surprised by a $12,000 spike in EC2 costs last month caused by a runaway Auto Scaling group. They want to receive an email alert within hours whenever any AWS service cost behaves unexpectedly, without manually setting fixed dollar thresholds for each service. Which AWS cost management feature provides this?

Accepted Answer

Enable Cost Anomaly Detection with an AWS services monitor and create an alert subscription to email the finance team when an anomaly is detected. Cost Anomaly Detection uses machine learning to model historical spending patterns for each AWS service and automatically detects unusual spikes without requiring manual thresholds. By creating an AWS services monitor and linking an alert subscription, the finance team receives email notifications within hours when any service deviates from its expected cost behavior, directly addressing the need for service-agnostic, threshold-free alerts.

Answer

Create an AWS Budget with a monthly EC2 cost threshold of $10,000 and an alert at 80 percent of the threshold

Answer

Enable AWS Cost Explorer and review the daily cost breakdown each morning to spot unexpected charges

Answer

Configure CloudWatch Billing alarms with a static threshold for each AWS service individually

Question 9

A company runs a web application on a fleet of Amazon EC2 instances. The application uses Amazon EBS volumes of type gp2 (General Purpose SSD). Each volume is 100 GB, which provides a baseline of 3000 IOPS (the minimum performance of gp2). The SysOps administrator monitors the volumes and finds that the average IOPS used is only 1,500, and the application performance is adequate. The administrator wants to reduce storage costs without affecting performance. Which action should the administrator take?

Accepted Answer

Migrate the volumes from gp2 to gp3 and provision the baseline IOPS to match the actual usage.. Migrating from gp2 to gp3 is the correct action because gp3 offers a baseline of 3,000 IOPS and 125 MB/s throughput at a lower per-GB cost than gp2, regardless of volume size. Since the current gp2 volumes are 100 GB and provide only 3,000 IOPS baseline, but actual usage is only 1,500 IOPS, switching to gp3 allows the administrator to provision exactly 1,500 IOPS (paying only for what is used) while still benefiting from the included baseline performance, thereby reducing costs without affecting performance.

Answer

Replace the EBS volumes with instance store volumes.

Answer

Change the volume type to io2 (Provisioned IOPS SSD) and reduce the provisioned IOPS.

Answer

Change the volume type to Cold HDD (sc1) to reduce cost.

Question 10

A company uses Amazon S3 to serve large files to users. The files are accessed frequently for the first 30 days after upload, then access drops significantly. The SysOps administrator wants to minimize storage costs while ensuring low-latency access for frequently accessed files and automatic optimization for changing access patterns. Which S3 storage class configuration should be used?

Accepted Answer

Use S3 Intelligent-Tiering.. S3 Intelligent-Tiering is the correct choice because it automatically moves objects between three access tiers (frequent, infrequent, and archive instant) based on changing access patterns, without any lifecycle rules or performance impact. This meets the requirement for low-latency access for frequently accessed files and automatic optimization, while minimizing storage costs as access drops after 30 days.

Answer

Use S3 Standard for 30 days, then transition to S3 Glacier Deep Archive.

Answer

Use S3 Standard then transition to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after 30 days.

Answer

Use S3 One Zone-IA for the first 30 days, then transition to S3 Standard-IA.

Question 11

A company runs a batch processing application on Amazon EC2 that runs for 2 hours every night. The workload can tolerate interruptions. Which EC2 purchasing option provides the lowest cost for this use case?

Accepted Answer

Spot Instances. Spot Instances are the correct choice because the workload is fault-tolerant, runs for a fixed 2-hour window nightly, and can tolerate interruptions. Spot Instances offer significant cost savings (up to 90% off On-Demand) by using spare EC2 capacity, which aligns perfectly with a batch job that can be retried if interrupted.

Answer

On-Demand Instances

Answer

Reserved Instances

Answer

Dedicated Hosts

Question 12

A company uses Amazon CloudFront to deliver content to a global audience. The origin is an Application Load Balancer in us-east-1. The SysOps administrator wants to reduce costs by minimizing the number of requests that reach the origin server. Which action should the administrator take?

Accepted Answer

Enable CloudFront Origin Shield.. CloudFront Origin Shield acts as an additional caching layer in front of the origin, reducing the load on the origin by consolidating requests from multiple edge locations. This minimizes the number of requests that reach the Application Load Balancer, directly lowering origin request costs and improving cache hit ratio.

Answer

Configure multiple origins for failover.

Answer

Enable CloudFront Web Application Firewall (WAF) integration.

Answer

Increase the cache TTL for CloudFront distributions.

Question 13

A company runs a batch processing job on Amazon EC2 instances that runs for 3 hours each night. The job can be interrupted and can resume from the last checkpoint without data loss. The SysOps administrator wants to minimize compute costs for this workload. Which Amazon EC2 purchasing option should be used?

Accepted Answer

Spot Instances. Spot Instances are correct because the batch job is fault-tolerant (can be interrupted and resume from checkpoints) and runs for a fixed 3-hour window nightly. Spot Instances offer significant cost savings (up to 90% off On-Demand) by using spare EC2 capacity, which can be reclaimed by AWS with a 2-minute interruption notice. Since the workload can handle interruptions gracefully, Spot Instances minimize compute costs while meeting the job's requirements.

Answer

On-Demand Instances

Answer

Reserved Instances

Answer

Dedicated Hosts

Question 14

A company runs a web application on Amazon EC2 instances that have variable traffic patterns. The application experiences steady baseline traffic with occasional spikes. The SysOps administrator wants to optimize costs while ensuring performance during spikes. Which pricing model should be used for the baseline capacity and for the burst capacity?

Accepted Answer

Reserved Instances for baseline, Spot Instances for burst capacity. Reserved Instances provide a significant discount (up to 72%) over On-Demand for steady-state workloads, making them ideal for baseline capacity. Spot Instances offer the lowest cost (up to 90% discount) but can be interrupted with a 2-minute warning, which is acceptable for burst capacity that can tolerate interruptions or be designed to failover gracefully. This combination minimizes cost while ensuring the baseline always runs and burst capacity can be added during spikes.

Answer

On-Demand Instances for baseline, Reserved Instances for burst capacity

Answer

Spot Instances for baseline, On-Demand Instances for burst capacity

Answer

Dedicated Hosts for baseline, Spot Instances for burst capacity

Question 15

A company runs a web application on a fleet of Amazon EC2 instances that operate 24/7 with a steady and predictable load. The SysOps administrator wants to minimize compute costs while ensuring the required capacity is always available. Which EC2 purchasing option should the administrator use?

Accepted Answer

Reserved Instances. Reserved Instances (RIs) are the correct choice because the workload runs 24/7 with steady, predictable load. RIs provide a significant discount (up to 72%) over On-Demand pricing in exchange for a one- or three-year commitment, ensuring cost minimization while guaranteeing capacity availability in the specified Availability Zone.

Answer

Spot Instances

Answer

On-Demand Instances

Answer

Dedicated Hosts

Question 16

A company runs a web application on Amazon EC2 instances that run 24/7. The application has a predictable and steady load. The SysOps administrator wants to minimize compute costs while ensuring the required capacity is always available. Which purchasing option should be used?

Accepted Answer

Reserved Instances. Reserved Instances (RIs) are the correct choice because the workload runs 24/7 with a predictable and steady load. By committing to a 1- or 3-year term, the company can achieve a significant discount (up to 72%) compared to On-Demand pricing, while ensuring capacity is always available. This aligns with the goal of minimizing compute costs without sacrificing availability.

Answer

On-Demand Instances

Answer

Spot Instances

Answer

Dedicated Hosts

Question 17

A company runs a batch processing job every night that takes exactly 2 hours to complete. The job is time-sensitive and cannot tolerate interruptions. The SysOps administrator needs to minimize compute costs for the Amazon EC2 instances used during this job. The job runs every day and has predictable resource requirements. Which purchasing option should the administrator choose?

Accepted Answer

Reserved Instances (Standard). A Standard Reserved Instance is the best choice because the job runs every night for exactly 2 hours with predictable resource requirements, making it ideal for a 1-year or 3-year commitment that provides a significant discount (up to 72%) over On-Demand pricing. Since the job cannot tolerate interruptions, Reserved Instances offer capacity reservation and cost savings without the risk of termination that Spot Instances carry.

Answer

Spot Instances

Answer

On-Demand Instances

Answer

Dedicated Hosts

Question 18

A company runs a read-heavy database workload on Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL with a primary instance and two read replicas. The SysOps administrator observes that the read replicas frequently experience high replica lag during peak hours, causing stale reads for the application. The administrator needs to reduce replica lag while optimizing costs. The workload is predictable, with spikes during business hours and low traffic at night. Which combination of actions should the administrator take?

Accepted Answer

Upgrade the instance class of the read replicas to a larger type with more CPU and memory to handle the increased WAL replay rate.. Option B is correct because upgrading the read replica instance class provides more CPU and memory, which directly increases the WAL replay rate. In RDS for PostgreSQL, replica lag is primarily caused by the replica's inability to apply WAL changes as fast as the primary generates them. A larger instance class alleviates this bottleneck without incurring the cost of upgrading the primary instance.

Answer

Convert the read replicas to Multi-AZ instances to improve the replication process and reduce lag.

Answer

Add additional read replicas to distribute the read load and reduce the lag on each individual replica.

Answer

Upgrade the primary DB instance to a larger class with increased IOPS to reduce the amount of data that needs to be replicated.

Question 19

A company runs a batch processing job on Amazon EC2 that runs for 2 hours every night. The job can tolerate interruptions and can resume from the last checkpoint. The SysOps administrator needs to minimize compute costs. Which EC2 purchasing option should be used?

Accepted Answer

Spot Instances. Spot Instances are ideal for fault-tolerant, interruptible workloads like this batch processing job because they offer significant cost savings (up to 90% off On-Demand prices) in exchange for being reclaimable by AWS with a 2-minute warning. Since the job can resume from the last checkpoint, interruptions do not cause data loss or restart from scratch, making Spot Instances the most cost-effective choice.

Answer

On-Demand Instances

Answer

Reserved Instances

Answer

Compute Savings Plans

Question 20

A company uses Amazon S3 to store large files that are frequently accessed for the first 30 days after upload. After 30 days, access frequency drops significantly but users still need retrieval within minutes. The SysOps administrator wants to minimize storage costs while ensuring low-latency access for frequently accessed files and automatic optimization for changing access patterns. Which S3 storage class configuration should the company use?

Accepted Answer

Use S3 Intelligent-Tiering. B is correct because S3 Intelligent-Tiering automatically moves objects between two access tiers (frequent and infrequent access) based on changing access patterns, with no retrieval fees and low-latency access. This matches the requirement of frequent access for the first 30 days, then infrequent access with minutes-later retrieval, while minimizing storage costs without manual intervention.

Answer

Use S3 Standard for all objects, and manually move older objects to S3 Standard-IA after 30 days.

Answer

Use S3 Standard-IA for all objects, and accept higher retrieval costs for the first 30 days.

Answer

Use S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval