- A
Elasticity
Why wrong: Elasticity is the ability to dynamically scale computing resources up and down based on demand. While important for handling traffic changes, it does not directly address maintaining operation during a data center failure.
- B
High availability
High availability refers to systems that are designed to be operational and accessible for a high percentage of time by eliminating single points of failure. Deploying across multiple Availability Zones is a common practice in AWS to achieve high availability.
- C
On-demand self-service
Why wrong: On-demand self-service allows users to provision and configure resources automatically, without requiring human interaction with service providers. This is about instant resource provisioning, not continued operation during failures.
- D
Broad network access
Why wrong: Broad network access means that cloud resources are accessible over the network through standard mechanisms (e.g., internet, VPN). This is about connectivity, not resilience against data center outages.
CLF-C02 Cloud Concepts Practice Question
This CLF-C02 practice question tests your understanding of cloud concepts. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company runs its production web application on a single Amazon EC2 instance located in one Availability Zone. Recently, a power outage in that data center caused the instance to become unavailable, resulting in application downtime. The company wants to redesign the architecture so that the application automatically continues serving users even if a single data center fails, without requiring manual intervention. Which cloud computing concept does this scenario BEST illustrate?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue:
"best"Why it matters: Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
High availability
High availability (B) is the correct concept because the scenario describes designing an architecture that automatically continues serving users even if a single data center (Availability Zone) fails, without manual intervention. This is achieved by deploying the application across multiple Availability Zones, using an Elastic Load Balancer to distribute traffic, and configuring Auto Scaling groups to maintain instance health, ensuring the application remains accessible despite a zonal failure.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Elasticity
Why it's wrong here
Elasticity is the ability to dynamically scale computing resources up and down based on demand. While important for handling traffic changes, it does not directly address maintaining operation during a data center failure.
- ✓
High availability
Why this is correct
High availability refers to systems that are designed to be operational and accessible for a high percentage of time by eliminating single points of failure. Deploying across multiple Availability Zones is a common practice in AWS to achieve high availability.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
On-demand self-service
Why it's wrong here
On-demand self-service allows users to provision and configure resources automatically, without requiring human interaction with service providers. This is about instant resource provisioning, not continued operation during failures.
- ✗
Broad network access
Why it's wrong here
Broad network access means that cloud resources are accessible over the network through standard mechanisms (e.g., internet, VPN). This is about connectivity, not resilience against data center outages.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse high availability with elasticity, mistakenly thinking that automatically adding more instances during a failure is the same as designing for fault tolerance across data centers, whereas elasticity handles scaling based on load, not zonal redundancy.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
High availability in AWS is typically implemented by deploying resources across at least two Availability Zones within a Region, using services like an Application Load Balancer (ALB) with cross-zone load balancing and Auto Scaling groups configured with a minimum of one instance per AZ. Under the hood, the ALB performs health checks using HTTP/HTTPS or TCP pings, and if an instance fails, it automatically routes traffic to healthy instances in other AZs, achieving a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of seconds to minutes without manual failover scripts.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A company's IT admin needs to give a contractor read-only access to production logs without sharing account credentials. Using role-based access control (RBAC) and temporary scoped permissions — not a permanent shared password — is the correct pattern. Questions like this test whether you can apply least-privilege access across cloud identity services.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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Cloud Concepts — study guide chapter
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this CLF-C02 question test?
Cloud Concepts — This question tests Cloud Concepts — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: High availability — High availability (B) is the correct concept because the scenario describes designing an architecture that automatically continues serving users even if a single data center (Availability Zone) fails, without manual intervention. This is achieved by deploying the application across multiple Availability Zones, using an Elastic Load Balancer to distribute traffic, and configuring Auto Scaling groups to maintain instance health, ensuring the application remains accessible despite a zonal failure.
What should I do if I get this CLF-C02 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "best". Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
This CLF-C02 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CLF-C02 exam.
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