DVA-C02 Deployment Practice Question
Which TWO are valid deployment strategies supported by AWS CodeDeploy? (Choose TWO.)
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse deployment strategies (in-place and blue/green) with deployment configuration options (like AllAtOnce) or with strategies from other AWS services (like immutable deployments in Elastic Beanstalk), leading them to select 'All at once' or 'Immutable' as valid CodeDeploy strategies.
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
✓
In-place deployment
AWS CodeDeploy supports in-place deployments (option B) where the application is updated on the existing instances without provisioning new ones. This is a valid deployment strategy that updates the current fleet by stopping and starting the application, and it is one of the two core strategies explicitly documented by AWS.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Immutable deployment
Why it's wrong here
Immutable deployment is a strategy primarily used by AWS Elastic Beanstalk, not a native deployment type directly offered by AWS CodeDeploy for EC2/on-premises deployments. This method involves launching an entirely new set of instances with the updated application version, then swapping the DNS or load balancer target group to direct traffic to the new environment. The old instances are terminated only after the new environment is fully operational and verified, ensuring a clean deployment and straightforward rollback capability.
- ✓
In-place deployment
Why this is correct
In-place deployment is a valid deployment strategy supported by AWS CodeDeploy, where the application on the existing set of EC2 instances or on-premises servers is directly updated. During this process, CodeDeploy stops the application on each instance, deploys the new application revision, and then restarts the application. Traffic is not shifted between different environments; instead, the application files on the active servers are modified in place, potentially causing brief service interruptions on individual instances as they are updated.
- ✗
Canary deployment
Why it's wrong here
Canary deployment is a strategy primarily associated with AWS Lambda alias routing and API Gateway stage deployments, not a direct, named deployment type offered by AWS CodeDeploy for EC2/on-premises. In a canary deployment, a small percentage of user traffic is gradually shifted to the new application version, allowing for real-world testing with a limited user base. This phased rollout minimizes the blast radius of potential issues, but CodeDeploy's native Blue/Green strategy is its closest equivalent for controlled traffic shifting for EC2/on-premises.
- ✗
All at once deployment
Why it's wrong here
"All at once" deployment is a strategy commonly associated with AWS Elastic Beanstalk's basic deployment option, where the new application version is deployed simultaneously to all instances in the environment. While CodeDeploy can be configured to deploy to all target instances concurrently within an in-place deployment, "All at once" is not a distinct, named deployment strategy type offered by CodeDeploy itself. This approach can lead to downtime as all instances are updated at the same time, making it less suitable for critical applications requiring high availability.
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Blue/Green deployment
Why this is correct
Blue/Green deployment is a valid and robust deployment strategy supported by AWS CodeDeploy, designed to achieve zero-downtime deployments for applications running on EC2 instances, on-premises servers, or AWS Lambda. This method involves creating an entirely new environment (the "green" environment) with the new application version, while the existing "blue" environment continues to serve live traffic. Once the green environment is thoroughly tested and validated, CodeDeploy reroutes traffic from the blue to the green environment, typically via a load balancer, allowing for instant rollback by simply shifting traffic back to the original blue environment if issues arise.
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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.