SAA-C03 Design High-Performing Architectures Practice Question
A telemetry pipeline uses an Application Load Balancer in one Region. Global users need lower network latency to the application without caching dynamic responses. What should be considered? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse CloudFront with Global Accelerator, assuming that any CDN-like service is the answer for latency reduction, but CloudFront's caching behavior makes it unsuitable for dynamic content that must not be cached.
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
✓
AWS Global Accelerator
AWS Global Accelerator is the correct choice because it uses the AWS global network and Anycast IP addresses to route user traffic to the optimal Application Load Balancer endpoint, reducing latency for global users without caching dynamic responses. Unlike CloudFront, Global Accelerator does not cache content; it simply optimizes the network path, making it ideal for dynamic or real-time applications where caching is not acceptable. It is a managed AWS-native service that aligns with the architecture review board's preference.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
AWS Global Accelerator
Why this is correct
Global Accelerator assigns two static anycast IP addresses and accepts TCP/UDP traffic at AWS edge locations, then forwards it across the AWS private global backbone to the configured Application Load Balancer. This avoids the public internet's variable routing hops and packet loss, which materially reduces latency and jitter for dynamic, non-cacheable telemetry traffic. It also supports weighted endpoint groups and automatic failover, making it the right performance layer for an ALB-backed pipeline.
- ✗
S3 Cross-Region Replication
Why it's wrong here
S3 Cross-Region Replication is an asynchronous data-replication feature that copies objects from a source bucket to a destination bucket in a different AWS Region for durability, compliance, or disaster recovery. It does not intercept user traffic, does not change the network path between a client and the ALB, and has no effect on the latency of live dynamic requests. While the replicated bucket could be closer to users, they would still have to traverse the internet to the ALB; CRR never accelerates application routing.
- ✗
CloudFront only with long TTLs
Why it's wrong here
CloudFront is an HTTP/HTTPS content delivery network, so it can only front web protocols and is most effective for cacheable content such as static assets. Setting long TTLs for a real-time telemetry pipeline would violate the dynamic nature of the workload because edge caches would serve stale measurements and delay the propagation of fresh data. Even with short TTLs, CloudFront does not provide a global TCP/UDP acceleration layer and would add an unnecessary caching tier in front of the ALB rather than improving the raw network path.
- ✗
AWS Backup cross-Region copy
Why it's wrong here
AWS Backup's cross-Region copy creates archived recovery points in a secondary Region to protect against regional outages or accidental deletion; it is a disaster-recovery operation that runs on a scheduled backup plan, not a live-traffic routing mechanism. Existing backup copies remain dormant in Amazon S3 and are not used to serve or forward in-flight telemetry data to users, so they cannot reduce geographic distance or network hops for current requests. The option is entirely unrelated to the application path and cannot substitute for an accelerator service.
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JA
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.