DVA-C02 Deployment Practice Question
A developer needs to deploy a serverless application using AWS CloudFormation. The application includes an AWS Lambda function, an Amazon API Gateway REST API, and an Amazon DynamoDB table. The developer wants to create a stack that can be updated without downtime. Which CloudFormation feature should be used?
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
✓
Change Sets
Change Sets allow you to preview how changes to your CloudFormation stack will affect your running resources before you apply them. By reviewing the change set, you can ensure that the update does not cause downtime, for example by replacing resources without interruptions. This makes Change Sets the appropriate feature for updating a stack without downtime.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Drift detection
Why it's wrong here
CloudFormation drift detection is a monitoring tool that identifies when the actual configuration of resources in a deployed stack deviates from their definitions in the CloudFormation template. Its purpose is to detect unauthorized or manual changes made outside of CloudFormation. While vital for maintaining configuration compliance and integrity, drift detection is a post-deployment audit mechanism and offers no functionality for planning, previewing, or executing updates in a manner that avoids or minimizes downtime.
- ✗
StackSets
Why it's wrong here
AWS CloudFormation StackSets enable the deployment and management of CloudFormation stacks across multiple AWS accounts and regions from a single central administrator account. This feature is primarily focused on large-scale, multi-environment provisioning and governance. StackSets are unrelated to the specific challenge of performing a zero-downtime update on a single CloudFormation stack within a single account or region, as their purpose is distributed deployment, not individual stack update strategy.
- ✗
Nested stacks
Why it's wrong here
Nested stacks are a CloudFormation feature designed for organizing and reusing template components by allowing a stack to reference other stacks as resources. While they significantly improve template modularity and maintainability for complex architectures, they do not inherently provide any special capabilities for achieving zero-downtime updates. Updating a nested stack still involves standard CloudFormation resource update operations, which may incur downtime depending on the specific resource changes.
- ✓
Change Sets
Why this is correct
AWS CloudFormation Change Sets provide a powerful mechanism to preview the proposed changes to your stack before they are actually applied. By generating a Change Set, developers can review exactly which resources will be added, modified, or deleted, and understand the potential impact on existing resources. This foresight is crucial for planning updates that minimize or eliminate downtime, allowing for adjustments to the template or deployment strategy to ensure continuous service availability.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This DVA-C02 question is part of Courseiva's 724-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.