- A
Elasticity
Elasticity allows AWS resources to automatically scale in response to changing demand. This directly meets the requirement of handling traffic spikes without manual intervention.
- B
High availability
Why wrong: High availability ensures that the application remains accessible and operational with minimal downtime, often through redundancy across Availability Zones. It does not inherently provide automatic scaling to handle traffic spikes.
- C
Fault tolerance
Why wrong: Fault tolerance enables the system to continue operating even if one or more components fail. It does not address the need to scale resources in response to increased demand.
- D
Durability
Why wrong: Durability is the assurance that data stored in the cloud will persist without corruption or loss over time. It is not related to scaling resources to handle fluctuating traffic loads.
CLF-C02 Cloud Concepts Practice Question
This CLF-C02 practice question tests your understanding of cloud concepts. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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 is migrating its on-premises application to AWS. The application currently runs on a single server and experiences occasional traffic spikes that cause performance degradation. The company wants to take advantage of cloud computing benefits to handle these spikes automatically without manual intervention. Which AWS Cloud concept would directly address this requirement?
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
Elasticity
Elasticity is the correct concept because it refers to the ability of an AWS infrastructure to automatically scale resources up or down based on demand. In this scenario, the company needs to handle occasional traffic spikes without manual intervention, which is directly addressed by AWS Auto Scaling groups and services like Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling or AWS Lambda's concurrency scaling. This ensures that additional compute capacity is provisioned during spikes and released when demand decreases, optimizing both performance and cost.
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 this is correct
Elasticity allows AWS resources to automatically scale in response to changing demand. This directly meets the requirement of handling traffic spikes without manual intervention.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
High availability
Why it's wrong here
High availability ensures that the application remains accessible and operational with minimal downtime, often through redundancy across Availability Zones. It does not inherently provide automatic scaling to handle traffic spikes.
- ✗
Fault tolerance
Why it's wrong here
Fault tolerance enables the system to continue operating even if one or more components fail. It does not address the need to scale resources in response to increased demand.
- ✗
Durability
Why it's wrong here
Durability is the assurance that data stored in the cloud will persist without corruption or loss over time. It is not related to scaling resources to handle fluctuating traffic loads.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse elasticity with high availability or fault tolerance, mistakenly thinking that any redundancy or failover mechanism automatically handles traffic spikes, but elasticity specifically addresses dynamic scaling to match demand, not just maintaining uptime during failures.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, AWS Elasticity is implemented via services like Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling, which uses CloudWatch alarms and scaling policies to dynamically adjust the number of EC2 instances based on metrics such as CPU utilization or request count. For serverless architectures, AWS Lambda automatically scales concurrency by launching new execution environments up to regional limits, while services like Amazon DynamoDB use auto scaling to adjust read/write capacity based on traffic patterns. A real-world scenario is an e-commerce site that uses a target tracking scaling policy to maintain average CPU at 50%, automatically adding instances during a flash sale and removing them afterward.
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 startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
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: Elasticity — Elasticity is the correct concept because it refers to the ability of an AWS infrastructure to automatically scale resources up or down based on demand. In this scenario, the company needs to handle occasional traffic spikes without manual intervention, which is directly addressed by AWS Auto Scaling groups and services like Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling or AWS Lambda's concurrency scaling. This ensures that additional compute capacity is provisioned during spikes and released when demand decreases, optimizing both performance and cost.
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.
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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