- A
Use RDS cross-Region replication to a standby DB instance in another Region. Maintain a warm standby environment (Auto Scaling group, ALB) in the disaster Region. Configure Route 53 health checks to fail over automatically.
Cross-Region replication provides low RPO; warm standby with automatic failover meets RTO.
- B
Use RDS cross-Region snapshot copy every 15 minutes. In the disaster Region, manually launch a new environment and restore the latest snapshot.
Why wrong: Snapshot copy frequency may not achieve 15-minute RPO, and manual restore exceeds 30-minute RTO.
- C
Use RDS Multi-AZ in us-east-1. In the disaster Region, keep a standby Auto Scaling group and ALB. On failure, promote the Multi-AZ standby to primary and update DNS.
Why wrong: Multi-AZ is within a single Region and does not provide cross-Region DR.
- D
Use RDS read replicas in another Region. On failure, promote the read replica to a standalone instance and update the application.
Why wrong: Read replicas can be promoted but the application environment must still be ready; this option does not mention pre-provisioned compute resources, risking RTO.
Quick Answer
The correct answer is to use RDS cross-Region replication to a standby DB instance in another Region, maintain a warm standby environment with Auto Scaling and an ALB in the disaster Region, and configure Route 53 health checks for automatic failover. This combination meets the 15-minute RPO because RDS cross-Region replication uses continuous asynchronous replication, typically achieving lag well under 15 minutes, while the pre-provisioned warm standby infrastructure in the secondary Region ensures the 30-minute RTO by eliminating the need to launch resources during failover. On the AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional DOP-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of multi-Region disaster recovery patterns, specifically the trade-offs between active-passive and warm standby architectures—a common trap is choosing a cold standby or manual promotion, which would exceed the RTO. Remember the key distinction: RDS cross-Region replication handles the data layer’s RPO, while the warm standby environment handles the compute layer’s RTO. Memory tip: “Warm data, warm compute—Route 53 routes the recovery.”
DOP-C02 Resilient Cloud Solutions Practice Question
This DOP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of resilient cloud solutions. 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 company is designing a multi-Region disaster recovery strategy for a stateless web application. The application runs on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an ALB in us-east-1. The recovery point objective (RPO) is 15 minutes and recovery time objective (RTO) is 30 minutes. The application data is stored in Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL. Which combination of actions should the company take to meet the RPO and RTO?
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
Use RDS cross-Region replication to a standby DB instance in another Region. Maintain a warm standby environment (Auto Scaling group, ALB) in the disaster Region. Configure Route 53 health checks to fail over automatically.
Option A is correct because it meets both the 15-minute RPO and 30-minute RTO. RDS cross-Region replication provides continuous asynchronous replication with minimal lag, typically well under 15 minutes, ensuring data is nearly up-to-date. The warm standby environment (pre-provisioned Auto Scaling group and ALB) in the disaster Region allows automatic failover via Route 53 health checks, enabling recovery within the 30-minute RTO without manual intervention.
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.
- ✓
Use RDS cross-Region replication to a standby DB instance in another Region. Maintain a warm standby environment (Auto Scaling group, ALB) in the disaster Region. Configure Route 53 health checks to fail over automatically.
Why this is correct
Cross-Region replication provides low RPO; warm standby with automatic failover meets RTO.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Use RDS cross-Region snapshot copy every 15 minutes. In the disaster Region, manually launch a new environment and restore the latest snapshot.
Why it's wrong here
Snapshot copy frequency may not achieve 15-minute RPO, and manual restore exceeds 30-minute RTO.
- ✗
Use RDS Multi-AZ in us-east-1. In the disaster Region, keep a standby Auto Scaling group and ALB. On failure, promote the Multi-AZ standby to primary and update DNS.
Why it's wrong here
Multi-AZ is within a single Region and does not provide cross-Region DR.
- ✗
Use RDS read replicas in another Region. On failure, promote the read replica to a standalone instance and update the application.
Why it's wrong here
Read replicas can be promoted but the application environment must still be ready; this option does not mention pre-provisioned compute resources, risking RTO.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is confusing Multi-AZ (single-Region HA) with cross-Region DR, leading candidates to choose Option C, which fails to protect against a Regional outage.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
RDS cross-Region replication uses PostgreSQL's native streaming replication over TLS, with a typical lag of seconds to a few minutes under normal load, making it suitable for sub-15-minute RPOs. The warm standby approach requires pre-creating the Auto Scaling group, ALB, and Route 53 health checks with failover routing policy; the application must be configured to point to the RDS endpoint in the disaster Region after failover, which can be automated via AWS Lambda or custom scripts triggered by the health check status.
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.
- →
Resilient Cloud Solutions — study guide chapter
Learn the concepts, then practise the questions
- →
Resilient Cloud Solutions practice questions
Targeted practice on this topic area only
- →
All DOP-C02 questions
1,740 questions across all exam domains
- →
AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional DOP-C02 study guide
Full concept coverage aligned to exam objectives
- →
DOP-C02 practice test guide
How to use practice tests most effectively before exam day
Related practice questions
Related DOP-C02 practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
Configuration Management and IaC practice questions
Practise DOP-C02 questions linked to Configuration Management and IaC.
Resilient Cloud Solutions practice questions
Practise DOP-C02 questions linked to Resilient Cloud Solutions.
Monitoring and Logging practice questions
Practise DOP-C02 questions linked to Monitoring and Logging.
Incident and Event Response practice questions
Practise DOP-C02 questions linked to Incident and Event Response.
Security and Compliance practice questions
Practise DOP-C02 questions linked to Security and Compliance.
SDLC Automation practice questions
Practise DOP-C02 questions linked to SDLC Automation.
DOP-C02 fundamentals practice questions
Practise DOP-C02 questions linked to DOP-C02 fundamentals.
DOP-C02 scenario practice questions
Practise DOP-C02 questions linked to DOP-C02 scenario.
DOP-C02 troubleshooting practice questions
Practise DOP-C02 questions linked to DOP-C02 troubleshooting.
Practice this exam
Start a free DOP-C02 practice session
Short sessions build daily habit. Longer sessions build exam-day stamina. Try a timed session to simulate real conditions.
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this DOP-C02 question test?
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: Use RDS cross-Region replication to a standby DB instance in another Region. Maintain a warm standby environment (Auto Scaling group, ALB) in the disaster Region. Configure Route 53 health checks to fail over automatically. — Option A is correct because it meets both the 15-minute RPO and 30-minute RTO. RDS cross-Region replication provides continuous asynchronous replication with minimal lag, typically well under 15 minutes, ensuring data is nearly up-to-date. The warm standby environment (pre-provisioned Auto Scaling group and ALB) in the disaster Region allows automatic failover via Route 53 health checks, enabling recovery within the 30-minute RTO without manual intervention.
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 →
Keep practising
More DOP-C02 practice questions
- A company uses AWS CodePipeline with a multi-branch strategy. A new feature branch triggers a pipeline that runs unit te…
- A development team uses AWS CodeBuild to compile a Java application and run unit tests. The build takes 30 minutes, but…
- A company uses AWS CodePipeline with multiple stages: Source (Amazon S3), Build (AWS CodeBuild), and Deploy (AWS CodeDep…
- A company uses AWS CodeCommit for source control. Developers frequently push large binary files (e.g., compiled JARs) to…
- An organization uses AWS CodePipeline to orchestrate deployments to multiple environments (dev, test, prod). Each enviro…
- A company uses AWS Key Management Service (KMS) to encrypt data at rest in Amazon S3. The security team wants to ensure…
Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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.