SAA-C03 Design Resilient Architectures Practice Question
A production Amazon RDS database already has automated backups enabled. At 10:45 UTC, the team discovers that a faulty migration corrupted rows in a table at 10:30 UTC. The business wants the database restored to exactly the state it had at 10:30 UTC with minimal risk. Which two actions should the team take? Select two.
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers think manual snapshots can be used for point-in-time recovery, but they only capture a single moment and cannot roll forward to a specific time like automated backups can.
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
✓
Restore the database to a new instance using point-in-time restore for 10:30 UTC.
Amazon RDS Point-in-Time Restore (PITR) allows you to restore a DB instance to any second within the backup retention period, including 10:30 UTC. This uses automated backups and transaction logs to reconstruct the exact database state at that specific time, providing a precise recovery point with minimal data loss.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Restore the database to a new instance using point-in-time restore for 10:30 UTC.
Why this is correct
Correct. Point-in-time restore is the RDS recovery method for returning to a specific moment before the corruption occurred. Restoring to a new instance gives the team a clean database copy at the desired timestamp without risking the current production instance.
- ✓
Validate the restored database, then switch the application endpoint to the restored database.
Why this is correct
Correct. A safe recovery process restores the data first, verifies that the recovered state is correct, and only then cuts the application over. This reduces operational risk because the original database remains intact until the team confirms the restored copy is usable.
- ✗
Restore the most recent manual snapshot because it will include the 10:30 UTC state.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. A snapshot only captures the database state at the moment the snapshot was taken, so it cannot reliably recreate an arbitrary time such as 10:30 UTC unless that exact snapshot happened then. The correct tool for restoring to a specific time is point-in-time restore.
- ✗
Overwrite the existing database instance in place so the application keeps the same storage volume.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. In-place recovery is riskier because it can make rollback difficult if the restore does not produce the expected data set. AWS RDS point-in-time restore is designed to create a new instance, which lets the team validate the data before changing production traffic.
- ✗
Wait for automated backups to complete again, then replay the migration to restore the missing rows.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Waiting for another backup does not recover the lost state, and replaying the migration can reapply the corruption or introduce additional inconsistency. The problem is a known bad change, so the correct response is to restore to a known-good time before that change.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.