This DOP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of security and compliance. 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 web application on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The security team wants to protect the application from common web exploits like SQL injection and cross-site scripting. Which AWS service should be used?
AWS Shield Advanced
Why wrong: DDoS protection, not web exploits.
Amazon GuardDuty
Why wrong: Threat detection, not prevention.
AWS Network Firewall
Why wrong: Network-level filtering, not application layer.
AWS WAF
Web application firewall for SQL injection, XSS, etc.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
AWS WAF
AWS WAF is a web application firewall that helps protect web applications from common web exploits that could affect application availability, compromise security, or consume excessive resources. It allows you to create rules that filter and monitor HTTP(S) requests based on conditions such as IP addresses, HTTP headers, URI strings, and SQL injection or cross-site scripting patterns. By integrating with an Application Load Balancer, AWS WAF can inspect incoming traffic and block malicious requests before they reach the EC2 instances.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
AWS Shield Advanced
Why it's wrong here
DDoS protection, not web exploits.
Amazon GuardDuty
Why it's wrong here
Threat detection, not prevention.
AWS Network Firewall
Why it's wrong here
Network-level filtering, not application layer.
AWS WAF
Why this is correct
Web application firewall for SQL injection, XSS, etc.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse AWS WAF with AWS Shield or GuardDuty, mistakenly thinking that DDoS protection or general threat detection covers application-layer attacks like SQL injection and XSS, when in fact only a web application firewall (WAF) can inspect and filter HTTP request payloads at Layer 7.
Detailed technical explanation
AWS WAF uses a rule engine that evaluates incoming HTTP(S) requests against conditions defined in web access control lists (web ACLs). For SQL injection detection, it uses regex pattern matching on the request body, query strings, or URI to identify common SQL metacharacters and keywords like 'SELECT', 'DROP', or 'UNION'. In a real-world scenario, a rule can be configured to block requests containing '1=1' in the query string, which is a classic SQL injection test, while allowing legitimate traffic to pass through the ALB.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
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
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FAQ
Security and Compliance — This question tests Security and Compliance — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: AWS WAF — AWS WAF is a web application firewall that helps protect web applications from common web exploits that could affect application availability, compromise security, or consume excessive resources. It allows you to create rules that filter and monitor HTTP(S) requests based on conditions such as IP addresses, HTTP headers, URI strings, and SQL injection or cross-site scripting patterns. By integrating with an Application Load Balancer, AWS WAF can inspect incoming traffic and block malicious requests before they reach the EC2 instances.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
This DOP-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 DOP-C02 exam.
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