DOP-C02 Resilient Cloud Solutions Practice Question
A company wants to automatically recover an Amazon RDS DB instance if the underlying hardware fails. Which feature should the DevOps engineer enable?
⚠ Common exam trap
DOP-C02 often tests the distinction between high availability (Multi-AZ, automatic failover) and disaster recovery (cross-Region read replicas, backups), so candidates who see 'different Region' or 'backups' and assume automatic recovery pick the wrong option.
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
✓
Multi-AZ deployment.
Multi-AZ deployment maintains a synchronous standby replica in a different Availability Zone and automatically fails over to it if the primary instance's hardware fails, the AZ becomes unavailable, or the instance is rebooted with failover. This is the only RDS feature designed for automatic hardware-failure recovery with minimal downtime (typically 60–120 seconds). Deletion protection, cross-Region read replicas, and automated backups do not provide automatic failover on hardware failure.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Multi-AZ deployment.
Why this is correct
Multi-AZ maintains a synchronous standby in a different Availability Zone and automatically fails over to it when the primary's hardware fails, satisfying the stem's automatic recovery requirement. A single-AZ instance would remain unavailable until AWS or manual intervention restored it.
- ✗
Deletion protection.
Why it's wrong here
Deletion protection only blocks accidental deletion of the DB instance; it does not detect or recover from underlying hardware failure. It tempts because it sounds like a safety mechanism, but it acts solely on delete API calls and leaves the instance unavailable when hardware fails.
- ✗
Read replicas in a different Region.
Why it's wrong here
Cross-Region read replicas provide disaster recovery for Regional failures, not automatic recovery from an underlying hardware fault on the primary instance. It tempts because they do offer resilience and read scaling, but they require manual promotion and do not restart the failed instance in place.
- ✗
Automated backups with a retention period of 35 days.
Why it's wrong here
Automated backups preserve recoverable data for 35 days but do not trigger recovery when hardware fails; restoration is manual. It tempts because backups underpin durability, yet the requirement is automatic recovery, which Multi-AZ handles by failing over to a standby.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
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.