easyMultiple Choice
MLA-C01 Practice Question: A team wants to apply a custom container for…
A team wants to apply a custom container for inference on SageMaker. The container needs to implement a web server that responds to API requests. Which protocol and port must the container listen on to be compatible with SageMaker hosting?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently assume SageMaker requires HTTPS for security, but the service actually handles encryption externally, so the container must use plain HTTP on port 8080.
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 container must listen on port 8080 and use HTTP protocol.
SageMaker requires custom inference containers to listen on port 8080 and communicate over HTTP (not HTTPS). The SageMaker hosting service uses a proxy that terminates HTTPS and forwards plain HTTP requests to the container on port 8080. This ensures compatibility with the built-in model serving infrastructure.
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 container must listen on port 8080 and use HTTPS protocol.
Why it's wrong here
SageMaker requires the container to listen on port 8080 over HTTP, not 8080 with HTTPS; TLS terminates at the SageMaker endpoint. HTTPS on 8080 is tempting because production APIs are usually encrypted, but the container itself must serve plain HTTP behind SageMaker's TLS front end.
- ✓
The container must listen on port 8080 and use HTTP protocol.
Why this is correct
SageMaker hosting requires custom inference containers to run a web server listening on port 8080 over HTTP, which the platform's routing layer expects for health checks and invocations. Listening on any other port breaks the container-to-endpoint contract, so 8080/HTTP satisfies the stem's compatibility constraint.
- ✗
The container can listen on any port as long as the port is specified in the endpoint configuration.
Why it's wrong here
SageMaker fixes the container port at 8080 for HTTP inference; the endpoint configuration specifies model and instance settings, not the container's listening port. Arbitrary ports are tempting because many container platforms allow port mapping, but SageMaker's hosting contract does not expose that flexibility.
- ✗
The container must listen on port 8000 and use HTTP protocol.
Why it's wrong here
SageMaker hosting requires custom inference containers to serve HTTP on port 8080; port 8000 is not the contracted listener. Port 8000 is tempting because it is a common development-server default, but SageMaker's health checks and invocations target 8080, so the container would fail to respond.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This MLA-C01 question is part of Courseiva's 665-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam 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 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.