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Monitoring and Logging →hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

DOP-C02 Monitoring and Logging Practice Question

This DOP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of monitoring and logging. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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 containerized web application on Amazon ECS with AWS Fargate. The application is critical and requires high availability. The DevOps team has set up an Amazon CloudWatch alarm that triggers an auto scaling action when the average CPU utilization exceeds 75% for 5 minutes. However, during a recent traffic spike, the application became slow and some requests timed out, even though the CloudWatch alarm did not fire. The team checked the ECS service auto scaling configuration and found that the target tracking scaling policy based on average CPU utilization is set with a target value of 75%. The ECS service is configured with a minimum of 2 tasks and a maximum of 10 tasks. Upon investigation, they noticed that the CPU utilization metric for the service remained below 75% during the spike, but the memory utilization was high (over 90%). The application logs show that the tasks were running out of memory, causing garbage collection pauses and slow responses. Which course of action should the DevOps engineer take to prevent this issue in the future?

Clue words in this question

Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.

Clue: "minimum / minimize"
Why it matters: Asks for the least resource use — fewest addresses, smallest subnet, lowest overhead. Eliminate over-provisioned options even if they would technically work.

A
Add a second target tracking scaling policy based on average memory utilization with a target value of 75%.
Memory-based scaling will add tasks when memory is high, preventing memory exhaustion.
B
Decrease the CPU target value to 50% to trigger scaling earlier.
Why wrong: The issue is memory, not CPU; scaling on CPU would not help.
C
Increase the minimum number of tasks from 2 to 5 to provide more capacity upfront.
Why wrong: Increasing minimum tasks adds static capacity but does not dynamically respond to memory spikes, and may increase cost.
D
Increase the task memory limit in the task definition to 8 GB.
Why wrong: Increasing memory limit statically may not handle dynamic spikes and could be cost-inefficient; auto scaling based on memory is a better approach.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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

✓

Add a second target tracking scaling policy based on average memory utilization with a target value of 75%.

The correct answer is Option A. The issue is memory pressure, not CPU. Adding a target tracking scaling policy based on average memory utilization with a target value of 75% will cause the ECS service to automatically scale out when memory utilization exceeds the target, preventing performance degradation due to high memory usage. Option B (decreasing CPU target to 50%) is incorrect because CPU utilization was not the bottleneck. Option C (increasing minimum tasks to 5) provides static capacity but does not dynamically respond to memory spikes, leading to wasted resources or insufficient scaling. Option D (increasing task memory limit) is a static change that may help temporarily but does not provide dynamic scaling; auto scaling based on memory is the recommended approach.

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.

✓
Add a second target tracking scaling policy based on average memory utilization with a target value of 75%.
Why this is correct
Memory-based scaling will add tasks when memory is high, preventing memory exhaustion.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "minimum / minimize" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Decrease the CPU target value to 50% to trigger scaling earlier.
Why it's wrong here
The issue is memory, not CPU; scaling on CPU would not help.
✗
Increase the minimum number of tasks from 2 to 5 to provide more capacity upfront.
Why it's wrong here
Increasing minimum tasks adds static capacity but does not dynamically respond to memory spikes, and may increase cost.
✗
Increase the task memory limit in the task definition to 8 GB.
Why it's wrong here
Increasing memory limit statically may not handle dynamic spikes and could be cost-inefficient; auto scaling based on memory is a better approach.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.

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.
Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.

TExam Day Tips

Underline the problem statement mentally.
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 DOP-C02 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.

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FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this DOP-C02 question test?

Monitoring and Logging — This question tests Monitoring and Logging — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Add a second target tracking scaling policy based on average memory utilization with a target value of 75%. — The correct answer is Option A. The issue is memory pressure, not CPU. Adding a target tracking scaling policy based on average memory utilization with a target value of 75% will cause the ECS service to automatically scale out when memory utilization exceeds the target, preventing performance degradation due to high memory usage. Option B (decreasing CPU target to 50%) is incorrect because CPU utilization was not the bottleneck. Option C (increasing minimum tasks to 5) provides static capacity but does not dynamically respond to memory spikes, leading to wasted resources or insufficient scaling. Option D (increasing task memory limit) is a static change that may help temporarily but does not provide dynamic scaling; auto scaling based on memory is the recommended approach.

What should I do if I get this DOP-C02 question wrong?

Are there clue words in this question I should notice?

Yes — watch for: "minimum / minimize". Asks for the least resource use — fewest addresses, smallest subnet, lowest overhead. Eliminate over-provisioned options even if they would technically work.

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.