Question 1hardmultiple choice
Full question →hardmultiple choiceObjective-mapped
Exhibit
Route 53 record sets for app.example.com: - Record 1: Type A, RoutingPolicy=Simple, AliasTarget=alb-use1.amazonaws.com - Record 2: Type A, RoutingPolicy=Simple, AliasTarget=alb-usw2.amazonaws.com Health check status: hc-primary: FAILED hc-secondary: HEALTHY Resolver test: $ dig +short app.example.com alb-use1.amazonaws.com Ops note: The intent is to send all traffic to us-east-1 normally and fail over to us-west-2 only when the primary is unhealthy.
Based on the exhibit, DNS still sends traffic to the primary Region even though Route 53 health checks show the primary endpoint is unhealthy. What is the best change to make failover work as intended?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
A
Distractor review
Change both records to weighted routing with a 50/50 split so Route 53 can shift traffic gradually.
Weighted routing is useful for traffic distribution or gradual cutovers, but it does not implement the required primary/secondary failover behavior based on health status.
B
Best answer
Use a failover routing policy with a primary record and a secondary record, and attach the health check to the primary record.
Failover routing is designed for active-passive DNS behavior. With a primary and secondary record, Route 53 answers with the primary record when it is healthy and returns the secondary record when the primary health check fails. The exhibit shows simple routing, which does not express the failover intent. Switching to failover routing aligns the DNS policy with the stated requirement.
C
Distractor review
Switch to latency-based routing so users are always directed to the lowest-latency Region.
Latency-based routing optimizes for user experience, not for an explicit business requirement to prefer one Region and fail over only when it is unhealthy.
D
Distractor review
Use geolocation routing so clients in one Region are sent to the healthier endpoint.
Geolocation routing uses the requester’s location, not the health of the target endpoint, so it does not provide the requested health-based failover model.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
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.
- Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
- Underline the problem statement mentally.
- 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.
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More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
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Question 2
A team wants to run containerized services with AWS-managed orchestration and autoscaling. They do NOT require Kubernetes compatibility. Which AWS service choice is most appropriate to meet these goals?
Question 3
A solutions architect is designing an S3 bucket for a IoT ingestion API. The objects must never be publicly accessible, even if a developer later adds an overly broad bucket policy. What should the architect configure? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
Question 4
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Question 5
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Question 6
A solutions architect is designing an S3 bucket for a healthcare document service. The objects must never be publicly accessible, even if a developer later adds an overly broad bucket policy. What should the architect configure?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SAA-C03 question test?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use a failover routing policy with a primary record and a secondary record, and attach the health check to the primary record. — The current configuration uses simple routing, which does not provide the desired active-passive behavior. To route all traffic to us-east-1 normally and shift to us-west-2 only when the primary is unhealthy, Route 53 must use failover routing with a primary record, a secondary record, and health checking on the primary. That is the AWS feature built for this exact use case. Why others are wrong: Weighted routing shares traffic rather than expressing a primary/backup relationship. Latency-based routing is for performance optimization, not explicit outage failover. Geolocation routing makes decisions based on source location and does not switch based on endpoint health.
What should I do if I get this SAA-C03 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
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