DOP-C02 Incident and Event Response Practice Question
Network Topology
Refer to the exhibit. The DevOps engineer runs the commands and sees the output. What is the most likely issue with the instance?
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
✓
The underlying hardware is having issues (system status check failed).
The SystemStatus is 'impaired', indicating a problem with the underlying physical host (system status check failed). The InstanceStatus is 'ok', so the OS is functioning normally. Option B is incorrect because the system status check shows impairment, so there is an issue. Option C is incorrect because the instance is running, not stopped. Option D is incorrect because the impairment is at the system level, not the OS level.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
The underlying hardware is having issues (system status check failed).
Why this is correct
The correct interpretation is that the system status check has failed, which indicates an AWS infrastructure-level problem with the physical host running the instance. This includes issues such as a failing disk, network connectivity loss, or hardware component degradation. Even though the instance is running and its instance status check may pass, the impaired system status means the underlying hardware is compromised and AWS may need to repair or replace the host, often requiring a stop/start or recovery action.
- ✗
The instance is healthy and no issues exist.
Why it's wrong here
The instance is not healthy because a failed system status check specifically reflects diminished capability of the physical server, independent of the guest OS. While the instance is running and the instance status check may show 'ok', the overall health is degraded because the underlying infrastructure cannot guarantee performance or availability. This warrants intervention, so the assertion that no issue exists is incorrect without addressing the impaired system status.
- ✗
The instance is stopped.
Why it's wrong here
This option is incorrect because the instance state in the exhibit is 'running' and not 'stopped'. Stopped instances do not have live status checks; their status checks are 'Insufficient Data' until they are started again. A system status check failure requires the instance to be actively running on a host, so the instance cannot be in a stopped state when a failure is reported.
- ✗
The instance has a failed status check due to OS-level issues.
Why it's wrong here
This option confuses the two types of EC2 status checks: the instance status check (which monitors the operating system, file system, and network configuration) is showing 'ok', meaning the OS is healthy and reachable. The system status check failure is caused by an issue with the underlying physical machine, such as loss of power or hardware failure, not by the OS. Since the instance status check passes, the root cause is not at the OS or instance level, so this option is wrong.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every DOP-C02 question from scratch — 251 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.