The answer is to schedule the ingress controller pod on a dedicated node with a taint that prevents node upgrades. This approach ensures resilience during EKS upgrades by using taints and tolerations to isolate the critical ingress controller workload from the nodes being recycled or updated, meaning the controller remains available and responsive even as the rest of the cluster undergoes version changes. On the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional DOP-C02 exam, this question tests your understanding of how to maintain ingress controller availability during cluster lifecycle events, a common real-world scenario where managed node groups or autoscalers alone fail to protect against upgrade-induced downtime. The trap is assuming that managed node groups or horizontal pod autoscaling provide upgrade resilience, but they do not—only explicit node-level isolation with taints guarantees the controller stays up. Memory tip: Taint the node, retain the ingress—think of it as a “no-upgrade zone” for your critical traffic handler.
DOP-C02 Resilient Cloud Solutions Practice Question
This DOP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of resilient cloud solutions. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. 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 EKS. The application uses an ALB Ingress Controller. During a cluster upgrade, the ingress controller stops responding, causing downtime. The team wants to ensure resilience during upgrades. Which approach is BEST?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "best"
Why it matters: Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Schedule the ingress controller pod on a dedicated node with a taint that prevents node upgrades.
Option A is correct because running the ingress controller on a node that is not upgraded (e.g., using taints/tolerations) ensures the controller remains available. Option B is wrong because a managed node group does not guarantee availability. Option C is wrong because cluster autoscaler does not protect against upgrade. Option D is wrong because HPA does not help with upgrades.
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.
✗
Use a horizontal pod autoscaler for the ingress controller.
Why it's wrong here
HPA does not protect against node upgrades.
✗
Enable cluster autoscaler to add more nodes during the upgrade.
Why it's wrong here
Autoscaler doesn't prevent ingress controller from being terminated.
✗
Use a managed node group with a higher instance count.
Why it's wrong here
Managed node groups still get upgraded.
✓
Schedule the ingress controller pod on a dedicated node with a taint that prevents node upgrades.
Why this is correct
Dedicated nodes can be excluded from upgrades, ensuring ingress availability.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
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.
Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
→Underline the problem statement mentally.
→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
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which DOP-C02 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
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: Schedule the ingress controller pod on a dedicated node with a taint that prevents node upgrades. — Option A is correct because running the ingress controller on a node that is not upgraded (e.g., using taints/tolerations) ensures the controller remains available. Option B is wrong because a managed node group does not guarantee availability. Option C is wrong because cluster autoscaler does not protect against upgrade. Option D is wrong because HPA does not help with upgrades.
What should I do if I get this DOP-C02 question wrong?
Identify which DOP-C02 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "best". Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
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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