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Question 649 of 1,740

SDLC Automation →hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

Quick Answer

The answer is to enable automatic rollback in the CodeDeploy deployment group and configure a CloudWatch alarm for the ALB health check. This works because CodeDeploy monitors the CloudWatch alarm state during a deployment; when the alarm enters ALARM—triggered by a health check failure—CodeDeploy automatically reverts the deployment to the last known good version. On the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional DOP-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how CodeDeploy integrates with CloudWatch alarms to provide automated recovery, often appearing as a distractor where candidates mistakenly rely on manual rollback or deployment group settings alone. A common trap is forgetting that the alarm must be explicitly associated with the deployment group, not just created in CloudWatch. Remember the mnemonic: "Alarm + Auto-Rollback = Health Check Safety Net."

DOP-C02 SDLC Automation Practice Question

This DOP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of sdlc automation. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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 critical application on Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. The application is deployed using AWS CodeDeploy with an in-place deployment configuration. During a recent deployment, the deployment failed because the new application version caused a health check failure, and CodeDeploy did not automatically roll back. What should the engineer do to ensure automatic rollback on health check failure?

Question 1hardmultiple choice

Full question →

A
Set up an EC2 instance lifecycle hook to trigger a rollback script when the instance enters a pending state
Why wrong: Lifecycle hooks are for custom actions during instance launch/termination, not for deployment rollback.
B
Configure an Amazon SQS queue to monitor health checks and invoke a rollback Lambda function
Why wrong: SQS is not integrated with CodeDeploy rollback; CodeDeploy has built-in rollback triggers.
C
Enable automatic rollback in the CodeDeploy deployment group and set up a CloudWatch alarm for the ALB health check
CodeDeploy can be configured to roll back when a CloudWatch alarm (e.g., based on health check metrics) is in ALARM state.
D
Modify the Auto Scaling group to replace unhealthy instances automatically
Why wrong: Auto Scaling replaces instances but does not roll back the deployment.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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

✓

Enable automatic rollback in the CodeDeploy deployment group and set up a CloudWatch alarm for the ALB health check

Option C is correct because CodeDeploy can automatically roll back a deployment when a CloudWatch alarm, such as one monitoring ALB health check failures, enters the ALARM state. By enabling automatic rollback in the deployment group and associating the CloudWatch alarm, the deployment will revert to the previous version as soon as the health check fails, without manual intervention.

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.

✗
Set up an EC2 instance lifecycle hook to trigger a rollback script when the instance enters a pending state
Why it's wrong here
Lifecycle hooks are for custom actions during instance launch/termination, not for deployment rollback.
✗
Configure an Amazon SQS queue to monitor health checks and invoke a rollback Lambda function
Why it's wrong here
SQS is not integrated with CodeDeploy rollback; CodeDeploy has built-in rollback triggers.
✓
Enable automatic rollback in the CodeDeploy deployment group and set up a CloudWatch alarm for the ALB health check
Why this is correct
CodeDeploy can be configured to roll back when a CloudWatch alarm (e.g., based on health check metrics) is in ALARM state.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Modify the Auto Scaling group to replace unhealthy instances automatically
Why it's wrong here
Auto Scaling replaces instances but does not roll back the deployment.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

The trap here is that candidates often assume Auto Scaling group health checks or lifecycle hooks can handle deployment rollbacks, but they operate at the instance level and do not revert application code, whereas CodeDeploy's native automatic rollback with CloudWatch alarms is the correct, integrated solution.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

CodeDeploy automatic rollbacks rely on CloudWatch alarms that evaluate metrics like ALB TargetGroup HealthyHostCount or HTTPCode_Target_5XX_Count. When the alarm triggers, CodeDeploy stops the current deployment and initiates a rollback to the last known good revision, using the same deployment configuration (e.g., in-place or blue/green). A subtle behavior is that the rollback itself can also be configured to trigger alarms, so it is important to set the alarm evaluation period long enough to avoid false positives during the rollback deployment.

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.

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FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this DOP-C02 question test?

SDLC Automation — This question tests SDLC Automation — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Enable automatic rollback in the CodeDeploy deployment group and set up a CloudWatch alarm for the ALB health check — Option C is correct because CodeDeploy can automatically roll back a deployment when a CloudWatch alarm, such as one monitoring ALB health check failures, enters the ALARM state. By enabling automatic rollback in the deployment group and associating the CloudWatch alarm, the deployment will revert to the previous version as soon as the health check fails, without manual intervention.

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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Same concept, more angles

1 more ways this is tested on DOP-C02

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 DevOps engineer is designing a deployment pipeline for a microservices application on Amazon ECS. The team wants to use blue/green deployments with automatic rollback if CloudWatch alarms are triggered during the deployment. Which combination of services and configurations should the engineer use?

hard

✓ A.Use AWS CodeDeploy with a blue/green deployment configuration on the ECS service, and configure automatic rollback when CloudWatch alarms are breached.
B.Use AWS CloudFormation with a ChangeSet and a custom rollback Lambda function triggered by CloudWatch alarms.
C.Use AWS CodeBuild to run a build that creates a new task definition, then update the ECS service manually, and use CloudWatch alarms to trigger a rollback via a Lambda function.
D.Use Amazon ECS service auto scaling with step scaling policies based on CloudWatch alarms.

Why A: Option D is correct because CodeDeploy supports blue/green deployments on ECS with automatic rollback based on CloudWatch alarms. Option A is wrong because ECS service auto scaling is for scaling, not deployment. Option B is wrong because CloudFormation does not natively support blue/green with automatic rollback based on alarms. Option C is wrong because CodeBuild is for building, not deploying.

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