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mediummultiple choiceObjective-mapped

A company runs an application behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). An Auto Scaling group (ASG) is configured with desired capacity 2, but it is attached only to subnets in a single Availability Zone. The ALB is healthy because it is configured across multiple Availability Zones.

When the Availability Zone that contains the ASG subnets experiences an outage, what change most directly improves resilience and allows capacity to be restored automatically?

Question 1mediummultiple choice
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A company runs an application behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). An Auto Scaling group (ASG) is configured with desired capacity 2, but it is attached only to subnets in a single Availability Zone. The ALB is healthy because it is configured across multiple Availability Zones.

When the Availability Zone that contains the ASG subnets experiences an outage, what change most directly improves resilience and allows capacity to be restored automatically?

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Answer choices

Why each option matters

Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.

A

Distractor review

Increase the ASG desired capacity from 2 to 6 to compensate for the missing subnets.

Auto Scaling will still launch instances only into the AZs represented by the ASG’s configured subnets. After the AZ outage, increasing desired capacity does not allow replacement instances to start in a different AZ.

B

Best answer

Update the ASG to use subnet IDs that span at least two Availability Zones so it can launch replacement instances after an AZ outage.

If the ASG is attached to subnets in multiple Availability Zones, when instances in the failed AZ become unhealthy/terminate, Auto Scaling can launch new instances in the remaining AZs to restore the desired capacity. This directly addresses the root cause: the ASG cannot create capacity outside the AZs it is configured for.

C

Distractor review

Reduce the ALB health check interval to speed up detection of unhealthy targets.

Reducing the ALB health check interval may detect instance health failures sooner, but it does not change where Auto Scaling is allowed to launch instances. If the ASG is still limited to a single AZ’s subnets, capacity cannot be restored in other AZs.

D

Distractor review

Enable connection draining on the ALB so existing requests complete before targets are terminated.

Connection draining helps during controlled events such as deployments or scale-in, where you want in-flight requests to finish. It does not enable the ASG to launch replacements in other Availability Zones after an AZ outage.

Common exam trap

Common exam trap: usable hosts are not the same as total addresses

Subnetting questions often tempt you into counting all addresses. In normal IPv4 subnets, the network and broadcast addresses are not usable host addresses.

Technical deep dive

How to think about this question

Subnetting questions test whether you can identify the network, broadcast address, usable range, mask and correct subnet. Slow down enough to calculate the block size correctly.

KKey Concepts to Remember

  • CIDR notation defines the prefix length.
  • Block size helps identify subnet boundaries.
  • Network and broadcast addresses are not usable hosts in normal IPv4 subnets.
  • The required host count determines the smallest suitable subnet.

TExam Day Tips

  • Write the block size before choosing the subnet.
  • Check whether the question asks for hosts, subnets or a specific address range.
  • Do not confuse /24, /25, /26 and /27 host counts.

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More questions from this exam

Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.

Question 1

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Question 2

A team wants to run containerized services with AWS-managed orchestration and autoscaling. They do NOT require Kubernetes compatibility. Which AWS service choice is most appropriate to meet these goals?

Question 3

A solutions architect is designing an S3 bucket for a IoT ingestion API. The objects must never be publicly accessible, even if a developer later adds an overly broad bucket policy. What should the architect configure? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.

Question 4

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Question 5

A team wants to delegate IAM management to developers, but must ensure developers can never grant themselves permissions beyond a specific limit. Which AWS mechanism best matches this requirement?

Question 6

A solutions architect is designing an S3 bucket for a healthcare document service. The objects must never be publicly accessible, even if a developer later adds an overly broad bucket policy. What should the architect configure?

FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this SAA-C03 question test?

CIDR notation defines the prefix length.

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Update the ASG to use subnet IDs that span at least two Availability Zones so it can launch replacement instances after an AZ outage. — To recover from an Availability Zone outage, Auto Scaling must be able to create replacement capacity in the remaining Availability Zones. Because the ASG is currently attached only to subnets in one AZ, it cannot launch new instances after that AZ fails. Updating the ASG to span at least two Availability Zones allows Auto Scaling to restore desired capacity automatically. Why others are wrong: ALB health check timing and connection draining affect how quickly requests are marked unhealthy or how in-flight requests complete, but they do not change the ASG’s ability to launch instances in other AZs. Increasing desired capacity only scales within the AZs already configured for the ASG, so it cannot restore capacity after the sole AZ fails.

What should I do if I get this SAA-C03 question wrong?

Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.

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