This SAA-C03 practice question tests your understanding of design high-performing 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: auto Scaling dynamically adjusts EC2 instance count based on demand.. 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 retail API uses EC2 instances behind an ALB. CPU is consistently high during peak traffic, and request latency rises. What should be configured?
Auto Scaling policy based on an appropriate CloudWatch metric
Auto Scaling adds capacity when load increases and removes it when load falls.
S3 Object Lock
Why wrong: Object Lock controls retention, not EC2 compute capacity.
A VPC endpoint for CloudWatch only
Why wrong: A VPC endpoint changes network path, not instance capacity.
Disable health checks
Why wrong: Disabling health checks weakens availability and does not improve capacity.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Auto Scaling policy based on an appropriate CloudWatch metric
An Auto Scaling policy based on an appropriate CloudWatch metric (such as CPUUtilization or ALBRequestCountPerTarget) dynamically adds or removes EC2 instances to match demand. This directly addresses the high CPU and rising latency by distributing the load across more instances, preventing performance degradation during peak traffic.
Key principle: Auto Scaling dynamically adjusts EC2 instance count based on demand.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Auto Scaling policy based on an appropriate CloudWatch metric
Why this is correct
Auto Scaling adds capacity when load increases and removes it when load falls.
Related concept
Auto Scaling dynamically adjusts EC2 instance count based on demand.
S3 Object Lock
Why it's wrong here
Object Lock controls retention, not EC2 compute capacity.
A VPC endpoint for CloudWatch only
Why it's wrong here
A VPC endpoint changes network path, not instance capacity.
Disable health checks
Why it's wrong here
Disabling health checks weakens availability and does not improve capacity.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates may confuse operational features (like S3 Object Lock or VPC endpoints) with scaling mechanisms, or mistakenly think disabling health checks improves performance, when in fact it degrades reliability and latency.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, the ALB distributes incoming requests across registered targets using a round-robin algorithm. When CPU utilization exceeds a threshold (e.g., 70% for 5 minutes), a step scaling or target tracking policy triggers a scale-out event, launching new instances and registering them with the ALB. The new instances begin receiving traffic only after passing health checks (default: HTTP 200 on the configured path), ensuring only healthy capacity handles requests. In a real-world scenario, combining a CPU-based policy with a memory metric (via CloudWatch agent) prevents memory exhaustion that CPU alone might miss.
Key takeaway
Auto Scaling dynamically adjusts EC2 instance count based on demand.
Real-world example
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
Review auto Scaling dynamically adjusts EC2 instance count based on demand., then practise related SAA-C03 questions on the same topic to reinforce the concept.
Design High-Performing Architectures — study guide chapter
Learn the concepts, then practise the questions
Design High-Performing Architectures practice questions
Targeted practice on this topic area only
All SAA-C03 questions
1,040 questions across all exam domains
SAA-C03 study guide
Full concept coverage aligned to exam objectives
SAA-C03 practice test guide
How to use practice tests most effectively before exam day
Related practice questions
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to Design Secure Architectures.
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to Design Resilient Architectures.
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to Design High-Performing Architectures.
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to Design Cost-Optimized Architectures.
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 VPC.
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 S3 lifecycle policy questions.
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 RDS Multi-AZ questions.
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 IAM policy.
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 Route 53 failover questions.
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 CloudFront.
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 NAT gateway questions.
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 VPC endpoint questions.
Practice this exam
Short sessions build daily habit. Longer sessions build exam-day stamina. Try a timed session to simulate real conditions.
FAQ
Design High-Performing Architectures — This question tests Design High-Performing Architectures — Auto Scaling dynamically adjusts EC2 instance count based on demand..
The correct answer is: Auto Scaling policy based on an appropriate CloudWatch metric — An Auto Scaling policy based on an appropriate CloudWatch metric (such as CPUUtilization or ALBRequestCountPerTarget) dynamically adds or removes EC2 instances to match demand. This directly addresses the high CPU and rising latency by distributing the load across more instances, preventing performance degradation during peak traffic.
Review auto Scaling dynamically adjusts EC2 instance count based on demand., then practise related SAA-C03 questions on the same topic to reinforce the concept.
Auto Scaling dynamically adjusts EC2 instance count based on demand.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.