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MLA-C01 Practice Question: A company deployed a machine learning model on an…

A company deployed a machine learning model on an Amazon SageMaker real-time endpoint. Over several weeks, they notice that inference latency has been gradually increasing, especially during peak business hours. The model and instance type have remained unchanged. What is the most likely cause of the increased latency?

⚠ Common exam trap

Candidates often confuse a gradual latency increase with a model size or code issue, but the key clue is the unchanged model and instance type, pointing to a scaling configuration problem rather than a static resource limitation.

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 SageMaker endpoint auto scaling is not configured to scale out quickly enough under increasing traffic.

The gradual increase in latency during peak hours, with no change to the model or instance type, strongly indicates that the endpoint is not scaling out fast enough to handle increased traffic. SageMaker real-time endpoints rely on auto scaling policies to add instances based on metrics like invocation count or CPU utilization; if the scale-out step is too slow or the cooldown period is too long, requests queue up and latency rises. This matches the symptom of latency growing over weeks as traffic patterns evolve, rather than a sudden spike.

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 inference script is not using batch processing.

    Why it's wrong here

    Batch processing is not applicable for real-time endpoints.

  • The SageMaker endpoint auto scaling is not configured to scale out quickly enough under increasing traffic.

    Why this is correct

    If auto scaling policies are too conservative, the endpoint may not add instances fast enough during traffic spikes, leading to increased latency.

  • The model size is too large for the instance type.

    Why it's wrong here

    The model size hasn't changed, so this cannot explain the gradual increase.

  • The endpoint has data capture enabled, causing additional overhead.

    Why it's wrong here

    Data capture overhead is constant and does not increase over time.

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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security

Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva

This MLA-C01 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 MLA-C01 exam.