The answer is to set a minimum healthy percent of 50% and maximum percent of 200% in the service configuration, combined with a target tracking scaling policy based on CPU utilization. This configuration is correct because the minimum healthy percent ensures that during deployments or health check failures, ECS always keeps at least half of your desired tasks running, while the maximum percent allows the service to temporarily double its task count during rolling updates or scaling events. The CPU-based target tracking policy directly addresses the intermittent failures caused by resource exhaustion by automatically adjusting the desired count to match demand, scaling out when utilization spikes and scaling in when it drops. On the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional DOP-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how ECS Fargate auto scaling health checks interact with deployment configuration parameters—a common trap is confusing the minimum healthy percent with a static desired count. Remember the memory tip: "50/200 keeps tasks healthy and scaling ready," meaning half must stay healthy while the service can double up to handle load.
DOP-C02 Resilient Cloud Solutions Practice Question
This DOP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of resilient cloud solutions. 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 runs a containerized application on Amazon ECS with Fargate. The application experiences intermittent failures due to resource exhaustion. The company wants to improve resilience by automatically replacing unhealthy tasks and scaling based on demand. Which TWO actions should the company take? (Choose TWO.)
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Configure ECS service auto scaling with a target tracking policy based on CPU utilization.
Option D is correct because ECS service auto scaling with a target tracking policy based on CPU utilization automatically adjusts the desired count of tasks to match demand, preventing resource exhaustion by scaling out when CPU is high and scaling in when low. This directly addresses the intermittent failures caused by resource exhaustion by ensuring sufficient task capacity during load spikes.
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.
✗
Enable cluster auto scaling to add more Fargate capacity.
Why it's wrong here
Cluster auto scaling is for EC2; Fargate capacity is managed automatically.
✗
Use an Auto Scaling group to manage the number of tasks.
Why it's wrong here
ASG manages EC2 instances, not Fargate tasks.
✗
Define a health check command in the task definition to restart unhealthy containers.
Why it's wrong here
Fargate does not support Docker health checks via task definition; ECS uses ALB health checks.
✓
Configure ECS service auto scaling with a target tracking policy based on CPU utilization.
Why this is correct
Auto scaling adjusts task count to meet demand.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Set a minimum healthy percent of 50% and maximum percent of 200% in the service configuration.
Why this is correct
This ensures at least one task stays healthy during rolling updates.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is confusing cluster auto scaling (for EC2 instances) with ECS service auto scaling (for Fargate tasks), and assuming a health check command alone restarts containers without understanding that ECS service health checks only trigger replacement when integrated with the service's deployment controller.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
ECS service auto scaling uses Application Auto Scaling with a target tracking policy that maintains a specified target value for a CloudWatch metric (e.g., CPUUtilization at 70%). Under the hood, it calculates the number of tasks needed based on the metric's current value and the target, then adjusts the desired count via the ECS UpdateService API. The minimum healthy percent and maximum percent (Option E) control the deployment strategy: a minimum healthy percent of 50% ensures at least half the tasks remain healthy during rolling updates, while a maximum percent of 200% allows up to double the desired count during deployments, enabling blue/green-like behavior without downtime.
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 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
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.
Resilient Cloud Solutions — This question tests Resilient Cloud Solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Configure ECS service auto scaling with a target tracking policy based on CPU utilization. — Option D is correct because ECS service auto scaling with a target tracking policy based on CPU utilization automatically adjusts the desired count of tasks to match demand, preventing resource exhaustion by scaling out when CPU is high and scaling in when low. This directly addresses the intermittent failures caused by resource exhaustion by ensuring sufficient task capacity during load spikes.
What should I do if I get this DOP-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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