DVA-C02 Development with AWS Services Practice Question
This DVA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of development with aws 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 developer is building a web application that requires user authentication. The application will run on Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. The developer wants to offload authentication to a managed service that supports social login providers. Which AWS service should the developer use?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Amazon Cognito
Amazon Cognito is the correct choice because it is a fully managed identity service designed for web and mobile applications, providing user authentication, authorization, and support for social login providers (e.g., Google, Facebook, Amazon) via OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect. It offloads the entire authentication workflow from the EC2 instances and ALB, integrating seamlessly with the ALB's authentication action to validate tokens before traffic reaches the application.
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 Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Why it's wrong here
IAM manages permissions for AWS resources and users, but it does not support social login or end-user authentication workflows.
✓
Amazon Cognito
Why this is correct
Cognito offers user pools for sign-up/sign-in and supports social identity providers, making it ideal for offloading authentication.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
AWS Directory Service
Why it's wrong here
Directory Service is designed for Microsoft Active Directory integration, not for social login or managed end-user authentication.
✗
AWS Single Sign-On
Why it's wrong here
SSO is intended for managing access to AWS accounts and business applications, not for application authentication with social providers.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse IAM's role-based access control with user authentication, overlooking that IAM cannot handle social login providers or external user identity federation for customer-facing apps.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, Amazon Cognito user pools issue JSON Web Tokens (JWTs) after successful authentication, which the ALB can validate using its built-in authentication action without custom code. For social logins, Cognito acts as an OAuth 2.0/OIDC identity broker, exchanging tokens from external providers for its own tokens, enabling fine-grained access control via groups and attributes. A real-world scenario is a mobile app using Cognito Hosted UI to let users sign in with Facebook, then the ALB checks the Cognito-issued access token before routing requests to EC2.
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.
Development with AWS Services — This question tests Development with AWS Services — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Amazon Cognito — Amazon Cognito is the correct choice because it is a fully managed identity service designed for web and mobile applications, providing user authentication, authorization, and support for social login providers (e.g., Google, Facebook, Amazon) via OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect. It offloads the entire authentication workflow from the EC2 instances and ALB, integrating seamlessly with the ALB's authentication action to validate tokens before traffic reaches the application.
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.
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Question Discussion
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