- A
Turn off health checks and rely only on instance CPU utilization to route traffic.
Why wrong: ALB routing depends on target health as determined by health checks. Turning health checks off prevents the ALB from detecting and removing unhealthy targets from service, so traffic can still be routed to failing targets.
- B
Configure ALB listener rules to route all traffic to a single target group in one Availability Zone.
Why wrong: Routing to a single AZ removes multi-AZ redundancy at the routing layer. If that AZ becomes unhealthy, clients will be impacted.
- C
Configure target group health checks so the ALB stops sending traffic to unhealthy targets and continues routing to healthy targets in the other Availability Zone.
With target group health checks enabled and configured correctly, the ALB evaluates each target's health and stops routing requests to targets marked unhealthy. As long as healthy targets exist in the other AZ, the ALB preserves reachability.
- D
Store requests in an SQS queue before routing them to the ALB.
Why wrong: SQS can decouple producers and consumers and provide buffering, but it does not change how the ALB determines target health or decides which targets receive traffic. The stated requirement focuses on load-balancing behavior when targets become unhealthy.
Quick Answer
The answer is configuring target group health checks so the ALB stops sending traffic to unhealthy targets and continues routing to healthy targets in the other Availability Zone. This works because health checks enable the load balancer to automatically detect failed instances and remove them from the target group, allowing traffic to flow exclusively to the remaining healthy AZ. On the SAA-C03 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how ALB health checks provide AZ failure resilience at the load-balancing layer, often appearing in questions about high availability design. A common trap is assuming that simply deploying across multiple AZs is enough, but without properly configured health checks, the ALB will continue sending traffic to unhealthy targets, breaking resilience. Remember the mnemonic: “Health checks heal AZ wrecks”—if you want AZ failure resilience, always verify that health checks are enabled and correctly tuned.
SAA-C03 Design Resilient Architectures Practice Question
This SAA-C03 practice question tests your understanding of design resilient architectures. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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.
An internal service is hosted behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB) with targets spread across two Availability Zones. If the targets in one Availability Zone become unhealthy, the service must continue serving traffic from the healthy AZ. What change most directly improves resilience at the load-balancing layer?
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
Configure target group health checks so the ALB stops sending traffic to unhealthy targets and continues routing to healthy targets in the other Availability Zone.
Option C is correct because configuring target group health checks allows the ALB to automatically detect unhealthy targets and stop sending traffic to them, while continuing to route requests to healthy targets in the other Availability Zone. This directly improves resilience at the load-balancing layer by ensuring traffic is only forwarded to healthy instances, maintaining service availability even when an entire AZ fails.
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.
- ✗
Turn off health checks and rely only on instance CPU utilization to route traffic.
Why it's wrong here
ALB routing depends on target health as determined by health checks. Turning health checks off prevents the ALB from detecting and removing unhealthy targets from service, so traffic can still be routed to failing targets.
- ✗
Configure ALB listener rules to route all traffic to a single target group in one Availability Zone.
Why it's wrong here
Routing to a single AZ removes multi-AZ redundancy at the routing layer. If that AZ becomes unhealthy, clients will be impacted.
- ✓
Configure target group health checks so the ALB stops sending traffic to unhealthy targets and continues routing to healthy targets in the other Availability Zone.
Why this is correct
With target group health checks enabled and configured correctly, the ALB evaluates each target's health and stops routing requests to targets marked unhealthy. As long as healthy targets exist in the other AZ, the ALB preserves reachability.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Store requests in an SQS queue before routing them to the ALB.
Why it's wrong here
SQS can decouple producers and consumers and provide buffering, but it does not change how the ALB determines target health or decides which targets receive traffic. The stated requirement focuses on load-balancing behavior when targets become unhealthy.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may think SQS decoupling (Option D) improves resilience at the load-balancing layer, but SQS operates at the application layer and does not affect how the ALB routes traffic to unhealthy targets.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, ALB health checks use HTTP/HTTPS or TCP probes at a configurable interval (default 30 seconds) and threshold (default 2 consecutive failures) to mark a target unhealthy. The ALB then automatically deregisters the unhealthy target and redistributes traffic to remaining healthy targets across AZs, leveraging cross-zone load balancing (enabled by default) to ensure even distribution. In a real-world scenario, if an entire AZ experiences an outage, the ALB will stop routing to all targets in that AZ within seconds, maintaining service continuity from the healthy AZ.
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
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
- →
Design Resilient Architectures — study guide chapter
Learn the concepts, then practise the questions
- →
Design Resilient 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
Related SAA-C03 practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
Design Secure Architectures practice questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to Design Secure Architectures.
Design Resilient Architectures practice questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to Design Resilient Architectures.
Design High-Performing Architectures practice questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to Design High-Performing Architectures.
Design Cost-Optimized Architectures practice questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to Design Cost-Optimized Architectures.
SAA-C03 VPC practice questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 VPC.
SAA-C03 S3 lifecycle policy questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 S3 lifecycle policy questions.
SAA-C03 RDS Multi-AZ questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 RDS Multi-AZ questions.
SAA-C03 IAM policy practice questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 IAM policy.
SAA-C03 Route 53 failover questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 Route 53 failover questions.
SAA-C03 CloudFront practice questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 CloudFront.
SAA-C03 NAT gateway questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 NAT gateway questions.
SAA-C03 VPC endpoint questions
Practise SAA-C03 questions linked to SAA-C03 VPC endpoint questions.
Practice this exam
Start a free SAA-C03 practice session
Short sessions build daily habit. Longer sessions build exam-day stamina. Try a timed session to simulate real conditions.
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: Configure target group health checks so the ALB stops sending traffic to unhealthy targets and continues routing to healthy targets in the other Availability Zone. — Option C is correct because configuring target group health checks allows the ALB to automatically detect unhealthy targets and stop sending traffic to them, while continuing to route requests to healthy targets in the other Availability Zone. This directly improves resilience at the load-balancing layer by ensuring traffic is only forwarded to healthy instances, maintaining service availability even when an entire AZ fails.
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.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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.