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.
An application running on Amazon ECS with Fargate is experiencing increased latency. The DevOps team suspects that the task is running out of memory and swapping. Which set of CloudWatch metrics should the team examine to confirm this suspicion?
NetworkIn and NetworkOut
Why wrong: Network metrics don't indicate swapping.
MemoryUtilized and MemoryReserved
These metrics show memory usage; high utilization may cause swapping.
CPUUtilization and CPUReservation
Why wrong: CPU metrics don't show memory usage.
EphemeralStorageUtilized and EphemeralStorageReserved
Why wrong: Not available for Fargate by default.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
MemoryUtilized and MemoryReserved
Option B is correct because MemoryUtilized and MemoryReserved are the CloudWatch metrics that directly track memory consumption and allocation for ECS tasks using Fargate. When a task runs out of memory, the Linux kernel’s OOM killer may terminate processes, but before that, swapping can occur if swap space is available, causing increased latency. These metrics allow the DevOps team to compare actual memory usage against the task’s memory reservation, confirming if memory pressure is the root cause of the latency.
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.
NetworkIn and NetworkOut
Why it's wrong here
Network metrics don't indicate swapping.
MemoryUtilized and MemoryReserved
Why this is correct
These metrics show memory usage; high utilization may cause swapping.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
CPUUtilization and CPUReservation
Why it's wrong here
CPU metrics don't show memory usage.
EphemeralStorageUtilized and EphemeralStorageReserved
Why it's wrong here
Not available for Fargate by default.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates may confuse memory metrics with CPU or storage metrics, assuming any resource constraint can cause swapping, but only memory metrics directly indicate memory exhaustion and potential swapping behavior.
Trap categories for this question
Command / output trap
CPU metrics don't show memory usage.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, Fargate tasks run in a lightweight VM with a fixed memory allocation; when the task’s memory usage exceeds the specified limit, the kernel may invoke the OOM killer or, if swap is enabled (which is not default in Fargate), it could swap to disk, causing severe latency. MemoryUtilized is reported via the ECS agent or CloudWatch agent, while MemoryReserved reflects the task definition’s memory hard limit; comparing these reveals if the task is consistently hitting its ceiling. In real-world scenarios, a memory leak in the application code can cause MemoryUtilized to steadily approach MemoryReserved, leading to degraded performance before the task is killed.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
What to study next
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FAQ
Incident and Event Response — This question tests Incident and Event Response — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: MemoryUtilized and MemoryReserved — Option B is correct because MemoryUtilized and MemoryReserved are the CloudWatch metrics that directly track memory consumption and allocation for ECS tasks using Fargate. When a task runs out of memory, the Linux kernel’s OOM killer may terminate processes, but before that, swapping can occur if swap space is available, causing increased latency. These metrics allow the DevOps team to compare actual memory usage against the task’s memory reservation, confirming if memory pressure is the root cause of the latency.
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
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