The correct answer is to add a manual approval action between the Staging and Production stages. This is the proper implementation because AWS CodePipeline allows you to insert a manual approval step as an action within a stage or as a standalone stage, which pauses the pipeline execution until an authorized user manually approves or rejects the transition. By placing this approval action between Staging and Production, the pipeline will halt after the Staging stage completes, preventing any automatic deployment to production without human oversight. On the AWS Certified Developer Associate DVA-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of pipeline safety controls and the difference between automated and manual transitions—a common trap is thinking you can add the approval inside the Production stage itself, but the approval must gate the entry to that stage. Remember the memory tip: "Approve before you arrive"—the manual approval must occur before the pipeline reaches the production stage, not within it.
DVA-C02 Deployment Practice Question
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 developer has set up an AWS CodePipeline pipeline that automatically deploys a web application through a series of stages: Source, Build, Staging, and Production. The developer wants to require a manual approval before the pipeline proceeds to the Production stage. How should the developer implement this?
Why wrong: Incorrect. Adding approval in the Staging stage would halt the pipeline before Staging completes, which is not desired.
B
Add a manual approval action between the Staging and Production stages
Correct. A manual approval action placed as a separate stage or as an action in the transition between stages pauses the pipeline until approval is granted.
C
Configure the Production stage to use a CloudFormation change set with execution role
Why wrong: Incorrect. Change sets do not enforce manual approval in the pipeline; they are a deployment mechanism.
D
Use an SNS topic to notify developers of the deployment
Why wrong: Incorrect. SNS notifications do not block the pipeline; they just send alerts.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Add a manual approval action between the Staging and Production stages
Option B is correct because AWS CodePipeline supports manual approval actions that can be added as a stage or between stages to pause the pipeline and require explicit approval before proceeding. By placing the manual approval action between the Staging and Production stages, the pipeline will halt after the Staging stage completes and wait for an approver to manually approve the transition to the Production stage, ensuring no automatic deployment to production occurs without human oversight.
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.
✗
Add a manual approval action in the Staging stage
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Adding approval in the Staging stage would halt the pipeline before Staging completes, which is not desired.
✓
Add a manual approval action between the Staging and Production stages
Why this is correct
Correct. A manual approval action placed as a separate stage or as an action in the transition between stages pauses the pipeline until approval is granted.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Configure the Production stage to use a CloudFormation change set with execution role
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Change sets do not enforce manual approval in the pipeline; they are a deployment mechanism.
✗
Use an SNS topic to notify developers of the deployment
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. SNS notifications do not block the pipeline; they just send alerts.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may think a manual approval action must be placed inside a stage (like Staging) rather than as a separate stage between stages, but CodePipeline allows stages to be ordered sequentially, and the approval action must be in its own stage or at the end of a stage to block the transition to the next stage.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
In AWS CodePipeline, a manual approval action is a type of action that uses the 'ManualApproval' action provider. When added as a stage (or between stages), the pipeline enters a 'Stopped' state until an approved user or IAM role clicks 'Approve' or 'Reject' in the CodePipeline console or via the AWS CLI. The approval action can be configured with custom SNS notifications and a URL for the approver to review, but the key behavior is that the pipeline does not proceed to the next stage until approval is granted, making it ideal for production gating.
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 company's IT admin needs to give a contractor read-only access to production logs without sharing account credentials. Using role-based access control (RBAC) and temporary scoped permissions — not a permanent shared password — is the correct pattern. Questions like this test whether you can apply least-privilege access across cloud identity services.
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.
Deployment — This question tests Deployment — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Add a manual approval action between the Staging and Production stages — Option B is correct because AWS CodePipeline supports manual approval actions that can be added as a stage or between stages to pause the pipeline and require explicit approval before proceeding. By placing the manual approval action between the Staging and Production stages, the pipeline will halt after the Staging stage completes and wait for an approver to manually approve the transition to the Production stage, ensuring no automatic deployment to production occurs without human oversight.
What should I do if I get this DVA-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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These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A developer is using AWS CodePipeline to automate the deployment of a microservices application. The pipeline consists of a source stage (GitHub), a build stage (AWS CodeBuild), and a deploy stage (Amazon ECS). The developer wants to ensure that only approved changes are deployed to production. Which THREE actions should the developer take? (Choose THREE.)
medium
A.Configure the pipeline to automatically deploy every commit to production.
B.Deploy all feature branches directly to production.
✓ C.Add a manual approval step before the deploy stage.
✓ D.Use separate pipelines for different environments (e.g., dev, staging, prod).
✓ E.Implement integration tests in the build stage to catch errors early.
Why C: Options A, B, and D are correct. Manual approval gates, separate pipelines, and integration testing are best practices. Option C is wrong because automatic deployment bypasses approval. Option E is wrong because deploying all branches to production is risky.
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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.
Question Discussion
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