Question 1hardmulti select
Full question →hardmulti selectObjective-mapped
A customer portal uses Amazon Aurora MySQL. The application currently sends all SELECT queries to the writer instance endpoint. During traffic spikes, read latency increases, and the team wants the cluster to survive a writer failover without manual endpoint changes for the application. Which changes should the team make? Select three.
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
Best answer
Replace the hard-coded DB instance endpoint with the Aurora reader endpoint for read traffic.
Correct. The reader endpoint is a cluster-level endpoint that automatically routes read connections to available Aurora Replicas. That removes the dependency on a specific DB instance endpoint and avoids application changes when the writer fails over or the writer instance identifier changes.
B
Best answer
Add additional Aurora Replicas and spread read queries across them.
Correct. Aurora Replicas provide horizontal read scaling, so more replicas increase aggregate read throughput and help absorb spikes in SELECT-heavy traffic. Offloading reads from the writer also reduces contention on the primary instance during failover and steady-state load.
C
Best answer
Enable Aurora Auto Scaling for the replicas so the cluster can add readers during demand spikes.
Correct. Aurora Auto Scaling can add or remove replicas based on a scaling policy and CloudWatch metrics, which helps the cluster keep pace with recurring bursts. This improves sustained read performance without manual capacity changes.
D
Distractor review
Keep sending all traffic to the writer endpoint because it always has the freshest data.
Incorrect. Although the writer has the most recent committed data, forcing all reads through it creates a bottleneck and defeats Aurora's read-scaling design. A reader endpoint is the appropriate choice for read traffic.
E
Distractor review
Replace Aurora with a single larger RDS instance and continue using the same read pattern.
Incorrect. A larger single instance may provide more CPU or memory, but it still concentrates reads and writes on one node and does not provide the same horizontal read scaling or failover abstraction as Aurora replicas and cluster endpoints.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
- PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
- Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
- NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
- Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
- Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
- Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SAA-C03 question test?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Replace the hard-coded DB instance endpoint with the Aurora reader endpoint for read traffic. — The best design is to stop routing reads to the writer instance, add read capacity, and let Aurora scale that capacity as demand changes. The reader endpoint removes the hard dependency on one DB instance, Aurora Replicas increase total read throughput, and Aurora Auto Scaling adjusts replica count during predictable or variable spikes. Together, these changes improve performance and make failover behavior transparent to the application. Sending everything to the writer endpoint creates a read bottleneck, and replacing Aurora with a single larger instance trades one bottleneck for another. Neither option provides the scalable read path or failover-safe endpoint abstraction needed for this workload.
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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