The answer is the Application Load Balancer and AWS Global Accelerator. Both services distribute incoming traffic across multiple Availability Zones within a single region by routing requests to healthy endpoints, ensuring fault tolerance and low latency. An Application Load Balancer operates at Layer 7, distributing HTTP/HTTPS traffic across targets in different AZs based on routing rules, while Global Accelerator uses Anycast static IPs and the AWS global network to direct traffic to the optimal endpoint, automatically rerouting during failures. On the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional DOP-C02 exam, this tests your understanding of high-availability architecture patterns and the distinction between regional load balancers and global traffic optimization services. A common trap is assuming only a load balancer can distribute cross-AZ traffic, but Global Accelerator also achieves this by directing traffic to the healthiest endpoint across AZs. Memory tip: think of ALB as the regional traffic cop and Global Accelerator as the global express lane—both keep traffic flowing across AZs.
DOP-C02 Resilient Cloud Solutions Practice Question
This DOP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of resilient cloud solutions. 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.
Which TWO AWS services can be used to distribute incoming traffic across multiple AWS resources in different Availability Zones within a single region?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
AWS Global Accelerator
AWS Global Accelerator uses the AWS global network and Anycast static IP addresses to route incoming traffic to the optimal endpoint, such as an Application Load Balancer or EC2 instance, across multiple Availability Zones within a single region. It improves performance and reliability by directing traffic to the healthiest endpoint and automatically rerouting in case of failure, making it a valid service for distributing traffic across AZs.
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.
✓
AWS Global Accelerator
Why this is correct
Global Accelerator directs traffic to endpoints in multiple AZs.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Amazon Route 53
Why it's wrong here
Route53 is a DNS service, not a traffic distributor across AZs.
✗
Amazon CloudFront
Why it's wrong here
CloudFront distributes content to edge locations, not across AZs.
✗
AWS Direct Connect
Why it's wrong here
Direct Connect is a network connection, not a traffic distributor.
✓
Application Load Balancer
Why this is correct
ALB distributes traffic across AZs within a region.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often think only Elastic Load Balancers (like ALB) can distribute traffic across AZs, but AWS Global Accelerator also performs this function at the network layer, and the question asks for TWO services, so both ALB and Global Accelerator are correct.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, AWS Global Accelerator uses Anycast IP addresses that are announced from multiple edge locations, allowing traffic to enter the AWS network at the closest edge point and then be routed over the AWS global backbone to the best-performing endpoint in the chosen region. This avoids the public internet and reduces latency and jitter. In a real-world scenario, a global gaming application can use Global Accelerator to route players to the least-loaded AZ in a region, ensuring low latency and high availability even during traffic spikes.
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
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
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.
Resilient Cloud Solutions — This question tests Resilient Cloud Solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: AWS Global Accelerator — AWS Global Accelerator uses the AWS global network and Anycast static IP addresses to route incoming traffic to the optimal endpoint, such as an Application Load Balancer or EC2 instance, across multiple Availability Zones within a single region. It improves performance and reliability by directing traffic to the healthiest endpoint and automatically rerouting in case of failure, making it a valid service for distributing traffic across AZs.
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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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
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