- A
Pilot light: keep only minimal components (for example, replicated storage and a small amount of core services), so the app scales up during a disaster.
Why wrong: Pilot light keeps fewer components running, which usually means the environment must scale up significantly during failover. Scaling from minimal capacity often makes it difficult to reliably meet an RTO under 2 hours.
- B
Warm standby: keep the essential parts of the application running in the secondary Region at reduced capacity, while using database replication to meet the RPO.
Warm standby aligns with both constraints: reduced-cost readiness is maintained in the secondary Region (so RTO is faster), and continuous replication is used to keep data lag within the 15-minute RPO target.
- C
Active-active: run the application fully in both Regions with synchronized writes and share traffic continuously.
Why wrong: Active-active generally requires running full production capacity in both Regions, which contradicts the requirement to avoid running full production infrastructure in the secondary Region at all times.
- D
Cold standby: store backups in the secondary Region and provision all infrastructure only during a disaster.
Why wrong: Cold standby typically requires substantial provisioning and deployment work during failover. That usually exceeds a 2-hour RTO, even if backups are available in the secondary Region.
SAA-C03 Design Resilient Architectures Practice Question
This SAA-C03 practice question tests your understanding of design resilient architectures. 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 fintech company has a two-Region DR requirement: RPO must be within 15 minutes and RTO must be under 2 hours. To control cost, they do not want to run full production infrastructure in the secondary Region continuously. They plan to continuously replicate the database and keep the application infrastructure in the secondary Region prepared, but at reduced capacity. Which DR strategy best matches this requirement and accurately describes their plan?
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
Warm standby: keep the essential parts of the application running in the secondary Region at reduced capacity, while using database replication to meet the RPO.
Warm standby is the correct strategy because it runs a scaled-down version of the production application in the secondary Region continuously, with database replication (e.g., Amazon RDS Multi-Region or Aurora Global Database) meeting the 15-minute RPO. The reduced-capacity infrastructure can be scaled up within the 2-hour RTO during a disaster, balancing cost and recovery requirements.
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.
- ✗
Pilot light: keep only minimal components (for example, replicated storage and a small amount of core services), so the app scales up during a disaster.
Why it's wrong here
Pilot light keeps fewer components running, which usually means the environment must scale up significantly during failover. Scaling from minimal capacity often makes it difficult to reliably meet an RTO under 2 hours.
- ✓
Warm standby: keep the essential parts of the application running in the secondary Region at reduced capacity, while using database replication to meet the RPO.
Why this is correct
Warm standby aligns with both constraints: reduced-cost readiness is maintained in the secondary Region (so RTO is faster), and continuous replication is used to keep data lag within the 15-minute RPO target.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Active-active: run the application fully in both Regions with synchronized writes and share traffic continuously.
Why it's wrong here
Active-active generally requires running full production capacity in both Regions, which contradicts the requirement to avoid running full production infrastructure in the secondary Region at all times.
- ✗
Cold standby: store backups in the secondary Region and provision all infrastructure only during a disaster.
Why it's wrong here
Cold standby typically requires substantial provisioning and deployment work during failover. That usually exceeds a 2-hour RTO, even if backups are available in the secondary Region.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is confusing pilot light with warm standby: candidates often think any pre-provisioned infrastructure qualifies as pilot light, but warm standby explicitly runs the application at reduced capacity, whereas pilot light keeps only core services and storage without running the application stack.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
In a warm standby setup, database replication can use asynchronous replication (e.g., Amazon RDS cross-Region read replicas with MySQL or PostgreSQL) to achieve sub-15-minute RPO, while the application stack (e.g., EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer) runs at a minimal instance count or size. During failover, you scale out the application fleet and promote the read replica to a primary database, typically completing within the 2-hour RTO window. A common real-world scenario is a financial services company using Aurora Global Database, which provides a 1-second RPO across Regions, and running a single t3.medium instance in the DR Region that auto-scales to multiple m5.large instances upon failover.
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.
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
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 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.
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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 — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Warm standby: keep the essential parts of the application running in the secondary Region at reduced capacity, while using database replication to meet the RPO. — Warm standby is the correct strategy because it runs a scaled-down version of the production application in the secondary Region continuously, with database replication (e.g., Amazon RDS Multi-Region or Aurora Global Database) meeting the 15-minute RPO. The reduced-capacity infrastructure can be scaled up within the 2-hour RTO during a disaster, balancing cost and recovery requirements.
What should I do if I get this SAA-C03 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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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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