Question 1mediummultiple choice
Full question →mediummultiple choiceObjective-mapped
A company is building a serverless web application using AWS Lambda for compute. The application needs to expose RESTful API endpoints that allow users to perform CRUD operations on a database. The API must support authentication using API keys, throttle requests to prevent abuse, and validate incoming request payloads before they reach the Lambda functions. The company wants a fully managed service that handles these API management tasks and integrates directly with AWS Lambda. Which AWS service should the company use?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
A
Distractor review
Amazon CloudFront
Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery network (CDN) that caches content at edge locations. While it can be used as a front end for APIs, it does not provide built-in API key authentication, request validation, or throttling capabilities specifically for API management tasks. CloudFront is optimized for delivering static and dynamic content with low latency, not for managing APIs.
B
Best answer
Amazon API Gateway
Amazon API Gateway is a fully managed service designed to handle all aspects of API management, including authentication (API keys, IAM, Cognito), request throttling, rate limiting, request validation, and direct integration with AWS Lambda. It is the correct choice for exposing Lambda-based serverless applications as RESTful APIs.
C
Distractor review
Application Load Balancer
An Application Load Balancer (ALB) can route HTTP/S traffic to Lambda functions as targets, but it does not provide API key authentication, request payload validation, or rate limiting. ALB is a load balancing service, not an API management service. It lacks the built-in API lifecycle features that API Gateway offers.
D
Distractor review
AWS Step Functions
AWS Step Functions is a serverless workflow orchestration service that lets you coordinate multiple AWS services into a state machine. It is not designed to expose external APIs or handle authentication, throttling, or request validation. It works behind the scenes, not as an API endpoint.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
- PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
- Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
- NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
- Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
- Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
- Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
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More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A developer needs to launch a test server for a new application prototype. The developer logs into the AWS Management Console, selects an Amazon EC2 instance type, configures the security group, and starts the instance. The instance is running within two minutes, and the developer did not need to submit a formal request to the company's IT procurement team or wait for approval from a cloud administrator. Which essential characteristic of cloud computing does this scenario best demonstrate?
Question 2
A solutions architect is planning a new web application on AWS. The workload will include 3 Amazon EC2 instances (t3.medium) running 24/7, an Application Load Balancer, and an Amazon RDS for MySQL db.t3.small database. The architect needs to estimate the monthly cost for the first year, considering different purchasing options (On-Demand, 1-year All Upfront Reserved Instance, and Compute Savings Plan). Which AWS tool should the architect use to create this estimate?
Question 3
A company's development team frequently needs temporary test environments. A developer can log into the AWS Management Console, select an Amazon EC2 instance type, configure storage, and launch the instance within minutes without any interaction with the IT infrastructure team. This capability is an example of which essential characteristic of cloud computing?
Question 4
A company's finance team needs to analyze AWS spending in detail. They require a report that includes hourly cost data for each AWS service, each individual resource (e.g., a specific EC2 instance), and any cost allocation tags applied. The team plans to export this data to an Amazon S3 bucket and then import it into a custom business intelligence (BI) analytics dashboard. Which AWS tool should the finance team use to generate this level of detailed cost data?
Question 5
A company uses AWS for its development environment. The finance team wants to set a monthly budget of $10,000. They want to receive an email notification when the actual costs reach 80% of the budget ($8,000) and again when costs exceed the budget. The team needs a managed AWS service that can automatically send these alerts without requiring custom code or third-party tools. Which AWS service should the team use?
Question 6
A company uses AWS Organizations to manage multiple accounts. The security team needs to enforce a policy that restricts SSH access (port 22) from the internet (0.0.0.0/0) in all VPCs across all accounts. The team wants to centrally define the allowed rules and automatically apply them to newly created VPCs and security groups, while also automatically remediating any existing non-compliant security groups. Which AWS service should the team use?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this CLF-C02 question test?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Amazon API Gateway — Amazon API Gateway is a fully managed service that makes it easy to create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs at any scale. It integrates natively with AWS Lambda, provides built-in authentication via API keys, offers request throttling and rate limiting, and can validate request payloads against a model. This makes it the ideal choice for exposing serverless applications as RESTful APIs.
What should I do if I get this CLF-C02 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
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