The answer is Amazon CloudWatch Alarms and Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS). When SageMaker Model Monitor detects drift, it publishes metrics to CloudWatch, and you can set a CloudWatch Alarm on the specific drift metric—such as the deviation from a baseline—to trigger an alarm state. That alarm then publishes a notification directly to an SNS topic, which can deliver email, SMS, or other messages to your team. On the AWS Certified Machine Learning Engineer Associate MLA-C01 exam, this pairing tests your understanding of the monitoring and alerting pipeline: Model Monitor produces the metric, CloudWatch evaluates the threshold, and SNS handles the actual notification. A common trap is choosing AWS Lambda or Amazon EventBridge, but these are not direct notification services—they require additional code or routing. Remember the mnemonic “Monitor, Alarm, Notify” (MAN): Model Monitor feeds CloudWatch Alarms, which push to SNS for the final alert.
MLA-C01 Practice Question: ML Solution Monitoring, Maintenance and Security
This MLA-C01 practice question tests your understanding of ml solution monitoring, maintenance and security. 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 uses SageMaker Model Monitor to detect drift. They want to receive notifications when drift is detected. Which TWO services can be used together to send notifications? (Choose TWO.)
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Amazon SNS topics to send email or SMS.
Options B and D are correct. Amazon CloudWatch Alarm can trigger on a Model Monitor metric, and it can publish to an SNS topic to send email or SMS. Option A (Lambda) could be used but is not a direct notification service. Option C (SQS) is for queues. Option E (EventBridge) can route events but not directly send notifications; usually triggers Lambda.
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.
✓
Amazon SNS topics to send email or SMS.
Why this is correct
SNS is used for sending notifications.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Amazon EventBridge to trigger a notification.
Why it's wrong here
EventBridge can trigger a target, but notification directly is typically through SNS.
✗
AWS Lambda to process the drift and send an email via SES.
Why it's wrong here
Lambda can be used, but the question asks for a service pair that 'can be used together'; CloudWatch+SNS is more direct.
✗
Amazon SQS to queue the notification.
Why it's wrong here
SQS is a queue, not a notification delivery service.
✓
Amazon CloudWatch Alarms set on the drift metric.
Why this is correct
CloudWatch Alarm can monitor the drift metric and invoke an action.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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
A cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which MLA-C01 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.
ML Solution Monitoring, Maintenance and Security — This question tests ML Solution Monitoring, Maintenance and Security — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Amazon SNS topics to send email or SMS. — Options B and D are correct. Amazon CloudWatch Alarm can trigger on a Model Monitor metric, and it can publish to an SNS topic to send email or SMS. Option A (Lambda) could be used but is not a direct notification service. Option C (SQS) is for queues. Option E (EventBridge) can route events but not directly send notifications; usually triggers Lambda.
What should I do if I get this MLA-C01 question wrong?
Identify which MLA-C01 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.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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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.
Question Discussion
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