This DVA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of deployment. 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 uses AWS CloudFormation to deploy infrastructure. They have a stack that creates an Amazon RDS DB instance. They want to update the DB instance class without downtime. Which update policy should they use?
UseLatestRestorableTime
This enables a blue/green deployment for RDS to minimize downtime.
AutoScalingRollingUpdate
Why wrong: This applies to Auto Scaling groups, not RDS.
UpdateReplacePolicy
Why wrong: This defines what happens to old resources during replacement.
CreationPolicy
Why wrong: This waits for signals after resource creation.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
UseLatestRestorableTime
Option A is correct because the `UseLatestRestorableTime` update policy is used with AWS CloudFormation to perform an update that replaces the DB instance with the latest restorable time snapshot, which minimizes downtime by allowing the new instance to be created from the most recent automated backup. This policy is specifically designed for RDS instances to enable a blue/green deployment-like update without manual intervention, ensuring the database remains available during the transition.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
UseLatestRestorableTime
Why this is correct
This enables a blue/green deployment for RDS to minimize downtime.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
AutoScalingRollingUpdate
Why it's wrong here
This applies to Auto Scaling groups, not RDS.
UpdateReplacePolicy
Why it's wrong here
This defines what happens to old resources during replacement.
CreationPolicy
Why it's wrong here
This waits for signals after resource creation.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates confuse update policies for EC2 Auto Scaling groups (like `AutoScalingRollingUpdate`) with those for stateful services like RDS, or they assume `UpdateReplacePolicy` is a valid CloudFormation attribute when it does not exist.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, the `UseLatestRestorableTime` policy triggers a replacement of the RDS DB instance by creating a new instance from the latest automated snapshot, then updating DNS to point to the new instance. This approach avoids downtime because the old instance remains operational until the new one is fully provisioned and promoted, though it requires that automated backups are enabled. In real-world scenarios, this is critical for production databases where even seconds of downtime can impact SLAs, and it works seamlessly with Multi-AZ deployments for additional resilience.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.
What to study next
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FAQ
Deployment — This question tests Deployment — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: UseLatestRestorableTime — Option A is correct because the `UseLatestRestorableTime` update policy is used with AWS CloudFormation to perform an update that replaces the DB instance with the latest restorable time snapshot, which minimizes downtime by allowing the new instance to be created from the most recent automated backup. This policy is specifically designed for RDS instances to enable a blue/green deployment-like update without manual intervention, ensuring the database remains available during the transition.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
This DVA-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 DVA-C02 exam.
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