- A
Active-active, where both Regions run full production at all times.
Why wrong: Active-active runs full production continuously, which is typically higher cost than required here.
- B
Pilot light, where the secondary Region keeps minimal core components ready and scales up during failover.
Pilot light maintains a small baseline in the secondary Region to enable faster, cost-optimized recovery.
- C
Cold standby, where no infrastructure is running in the secondary Region until an outage occurs.
Why wrong: Cold standby usually results in longer recovery times because core services must be built from scratch.
- D
Backups-only, where recovery relies solely on manually restoring snapshots during an outage.
Why wrong: Backups-only can meet RPO but is often too slow for a couple-hour RTO without automation.
SAA-C03 Design Resilient Architectures Practice Question
This SAA-C03 practice question tests your understanding of design resilient architectures. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. A key principle to apply: pilot light keeps minimal core infrastructure running in the secondary region.. 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 wants a disaster recovery setup for a web application. They want to keep costs low but still recover within a couple of hours after a regional disruption. They are willing to run only minimal infrastructure in the secondary location and scale it up during the outage. Which DR approach best matches this requirement?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue:
"best"Why it matters: Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
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
Pilot light, where the secondary Region keeps minimal core components ready and scales up during failover.
The Pilot light approach is correct because it keeps minimal core components (e.g., a small database, a scaled-down application server) running in the secondary Region, allowing rapid failover by scaling up those resources during an outage. This meets the requirement of low cost during normal operations while achieving recovery within a couple of hours, as the core infrastructure is already provisioned and can be scaled horizontally (e.g., using Auto Scaling groups and pre-configured AMIs) without needing to rebuild from scratch.
Key principle: Pilot light keeps minimal core infrastructure running in the secondary region.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Active-active, where both Regions run full production at all times.
Why it's wrong here
Active-active runs full production continuously, which is typically higher cost than required here.
- ✓
Pilot light, where the secondary Region keeps minimal core components ready and scales up during failover.
Why this is correct
Pilot light maintains a small baseline in the secondary Region to enable faster, cost-optimized recovery.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Pilot light keeps minimal core infrastructure running in the secondary region.
- ✗
Cold standby, where no infrastructure is running in the secondary Region until an outage occurs.
Why it's wrong here
Cold standby usually results in longer recovery times because core services must be built from scratch.
- ✗
Backups-only, where recovery relies solely on manually restoring snapshots during an outage.
Why it's wrong here
Backups-only can meet RPO but is often too slow for a couple-hour RTO without automation.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is confusing Pilot light with Cold standby, as both involve minimal infrastructure, but Pilot light has core components already running (e.g., a small database instance) while Cold standby has nothing provisioned, leading to significantly longer recovery times.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, Pilot light leverages pre-provisioned resources such as a small RDS instance (e.g., db.t3.micro) and a minimal EC2 instance behind an Application Load Balancer in the secondary Region, with Route 53 health checks and failover routing policies (DNS failover) to redirect traffic. During failover, Auto Scaling groups increase the desired count, and pre-warmed Elastic IPs or Global Accelerator can be used to accelerate scaling. A real-world scenario is a company using Pilot light for a web app with a read replica in the secondary Region, which can be promoted to primary and scaled up during a regional outage, achieving RTO of 1-2 hours while keeping costs under $100/month in the secondary Region.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Pilot light keeps minimal core infrastructure running in the secondary region.
- Data is continuously replicated to the secondary region in a pilot light setup.
- It offers a good balance between cost and recovery time (RTO).
- Scaling up additional resources is required during a failover event.
TExam Day Tips
- 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
Pilot light keeps minimal core infrastructure running in the secondary region.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Review pilot light keeps minimal core infrastructure running in the secondary region., then practise related SAA-C03 questions on the same topic to reinforce the concept.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SAA-C03 question test?
Design Resilient Architectures — This question tests Design Resilient Architectures — Pilot light keeps minimal core infrastructure running in the secondary region..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Pilot light, where the secondary Region keeps minimal core components ready and scales up during failover. — The Pilot light approach is correct because it keeps minimal core components (e.g., a small database, a scaled-down application server) running in the secondary Region, allowing rapid failover by scaling up those resources during an outage. This meets the requirement of low cost during normal operations while achieving recovery within a couple of hours, as the core infrastructure is already provisioned and can be scaled horizontally (e.g., using Auto Scaling groups and pre-configured AMIs) without needing to rebuild from scratch.
What should I do if I get this SAA-C03 question wrong?
Review pilot light keeps minimal core infrastructure running in the secondary region., then practise related SAA-C03 questions on the same topic to reinforce the concept.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "best". Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Pilot light keeps minimal core infrastructure running in the secondary region.
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
This SAA-C03 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 SAA-C03 exam.
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