- A
AWS Elastic Beanstalk
Why wrong: AWS Elastic Beanstalk is a platform as a service that automates the deployment and scaling of applications. It does provision underlying resources, but it abstracts the infrastructure details and does not offer the ability to define the entire infrastructure as reusable JSON or YAML templates for version control. It is better suited for developers who want to focus on code rather than infrastructure management.
- B
AWS CloudFormation
AWS CloudFormation is an infrastructure as code service that enables you to model and provision AWS resources using templates written in JSON or YAML. These templates can be stored in version control systems, making it possible to deploy identical environments across multiple accounts and regions consistently.
- C
AWS OpsWorks
Why wrong: AWS OpsWorks is a configuration management service that uses Chef and Puppet to manage server configurations. While it can be used to automate parts of infrastructure, it does not provide the same declarative, template-based infrastructure provisioning and version control capabilities that AWS CloudFormation offers.
- D
AWS CodeDeploy
Why wrong: AWS CodeDeploy is a service that automates code deployments to any instance, including Amazon EC2 and on-premises servers. It handles the rollout of application updates, not the provisioning or definition of the underlying infrastructure resources.
CLF-C02 Cloud Technology and Services Practice Question
This CLF-C02 practice question tests your understanding of cloud technology and services. 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 planning to deploy a multi-tier web application on AWS. The architecture includes Amazon EC2 instances, an Application Load Balancer, an Amazon RDS database, and security groups. The company wants to define and provision these resources as reusable, version-controlled infrastructure so they can consistently deploy the same environment to development, testing, and production accounts. The solution should allow the team to use JSON or YAML templates to describe the resources and their dependencies. Which AWS service should the company use?
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
AWS CloudFormation
AWS CloudFormation is the correct service because it allows you to define and provision AWS infrastructure as code using JSON or YAML templates. This enables version-controlled, repeatable deployments across multiple accounts (development, testing, production) by describing resources like EC2 instances, ALBs, RDS databases, and security groups along with their dependencies in a declarative template.
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.
- ✗
AWS Elastic Beanstalk
Why it's wrong here
AWS Elastic Beanstalk is a platform as a service that automates the deployment and scaling of applications. It does provision underlying resources, but it abstracts the infrastructure details and does not offer the ability to define the entire infrastructure as reusable JSON or YAML templates for version control. It is better suited for developers who want to focus on code rather than infrastructure management.
- ✓
AWS CloudFormation
Why this is correct
AWS CloudFormation is an infrastructure as code service that enables you to model and provision AWS resources using templates written in JSON or YAML. These templates can be stored in version control systems, making it possible to deploy identical environments across multiple accounts and regions consistently.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
AWS OpsWorks
Why it's wrong here
AWS OpsWorks is a configuration management service that uses Chef and Puppet to manage server configurations. While it can be used to automate parts of infrastructure, it does not provide the same declarative, template-based infrastructure provisioning and version control capabilities that AWS CloudFormation offers.
- ✗
AWS CodeDeploy
Why it's wrong here
AWS CodeDeploy is a service that automates code deployments to any instance, including Amazon EC2 and on-premises servers. It handles the rollout of application updates, not the provisioning or definition of the underlying infrastructure resources.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse AWS Elastic Beanstalk's environment configuration files (e.g., .ebextensions) with infrastructure-as-code, but Elastic Beanstalk does not provide the same level of resource-level control, dependency management, or cross-account stack deployment as CloudFormation.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
CloudFormation templates are declarative JSON or YAML documents that define resources and their dependencies; the CloudFormation engine automatically determines the order of creation, update, and deletion based on resource references (e.g., DependsOn or intrinsic functions like Ref and Fn::GetAtt). Under the hood, CloudFormation uses change sets to preview modifications and supports stack sets for deploying identical stacks across multiple accounts and regions, which directly addresses the multi-account consistency requirement in the scenario.
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 media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this CLF-C02 question test?
Cloud Technology and Services — This question tests Cloud Technology and Services — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: AWS CloudFormation — AWS CloudFormation is the correct service because it allows you to define and provision AWS infrastructure as code using JSON or YAML templates. This enables version-controlled, repeatable deployments across multiple accounts (development, testing, production) by describing resources like EC2 instances, ALBs, RDS databases, and security groups along with their dependencies in a declarative template.
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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