The correct actions are enabling automated backups with point-in-time recovery and enabling RDS Enhanced Monitoring with audit logs. Automated backups and point-in-time recovery allow the team to restore the database to a state before the suspected SQL injection attack, preserving data integrity and enabling forensic analysis of the compromised data. Enhanced Monitoring provides OS-level metrics like CPU and memory to correlate with the sudden spike, while audit logs capture the actual SQL queries executed, which is essential for identifying malicious patterns and confirming the attack vector when investigating SQL injection on RDS with backups and audit logs. On the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional DOP-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of combining recovery mechanisms with detective controls—a common trap is choosing only one mitigation action, such as simply enabling encryption, which does not help identify or recover from an injection. Remember the mnemonic “BACKUP and WATCH”: Backups for recovery, Audit logs and Watch (Enhanced Monitoring) for detection.
DOP-C02 Incident and Event Response Practice Question
This DOP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of incident and event response. 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 DevOps team is investigating a production incident where an Amazon RDS for MySQL database experienced a sudden spike in connections and CPU utilization. The team suspects a SQL injection attack. Which TWO actions should the team take to investigate and mitigate the incident?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Enable automated backups and ensure point-in-time recovery is configured.
Option B is correct because enabling automated backups and point-in-time recovery ensures that the database can be restored to a state before the suspected SQL injection attack, preserving data integrity and enabling forensic analysis. Option C is correct because RDS Enhanced Monitoring provides OS-level metrics (CPU, memory, disk I/O) to correlate with the spike, while audit logs capture actual SQL queries, which are essential for identifying malicious patterns and confirming the attack vector.
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.
✗
Delete the error logs to free up storage space.
Why it's wrong here
Error logs are essential for forensic analysis.
✓
Enable automated backups and ensure point-in-time recovery is configured.
Why this is correct
Backups allow recovery to a pre-incident state if data is compromised.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Enable RDS Enhanced Monitoring and audit logs to capture SQL queries.
Why this is correct
Enhanced Monitoring provides metrics, and audit logs capture queries for analysis.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Create a read replica to offload traffic from the primary instance.
Why it's wrong here
Read replica does not help identify the attack source.
✗
Increase the DB instance size to handle the increased load.
Why it's wrong here
Scaling up does not address the security incident.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse reactive scaling (Option E) or read replicas (Option D) with proper incident response, failing to recognize that investigation and mitigation require enabling logging and backup capabilities, not just increasing capacity.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
RDS Enhanced Monitoring uses a separate agent to collect metrics from the hypervisor layer, providing granular visibility into OS-level resource consumption that standard CloudWatch metrics miss. Audit logs in RDS for MySQL are generated by the MySQL audit plugin, which logs every query (including parameters) to a file; these logs can be streamed to CloudWatch Logs for real-time analysis. Point-in-time recovery uses binary log (binlog) replay to restore to any second within the retention period, which is critical for recovering from data corruption or unauthorized changes.
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 media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
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.
Incident and Event Response — This question tests Incident and Event Response — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Enable automated backups and ensure point-in-time recovery is configured. — Option B is correct because enabling automated backups and point-in-time recovery ensures that the database can be restored to a state before the suspected SQL injection attack, preserving data integrity and enabling forensic analysis. Option C is correct because RDS Enhanced Monitoring provides OS-level metrics (CPU, memory, disk I/O) to correlate with the spike, while audit logs capture actual SQL queries, which are essential for identifying malicious patterns and confirming the attack vector.
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.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
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.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.