SAA-C03 Design Resilient Architectures Practice Question
Exhibit
Route 53 record set Name: app.example.com Type: A (Alias) Routing policy: Simple Alias target: alb-primary-123.us-east-1.elb.amazonaws.com TTL: 60 seconds Health check ID: hc-44 Status: Inactive Secondary environment ALB target exists in us-west-2: alb-secondary-456.us-west-2.elb.amazonaws.com Operational note A Region outage should shift users to the secondary ALB without manual DNS changes.
Based on the exhibit, the company wants DNS traffic to fail over automatically from the primary Region to a secondary Region when the primary endpoint is unhealthy. Which Route 53 change is best?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse weighted routing with failover, assuming equal weights will somehow cause automatic failover, but weighted routing does not consider health status and requires manual intervention to shift traffic.
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
✓
Create Route 53 failover records with health checks for the primary and secondary ALBs.
Route 53 failover routing with health checks is the only option that automatically directs DNS traffic away from an unhealthy primary endpoint to a healthy secondary endpoint. When the health check for the primary ALB fails, Route 53 returns the secondary ALB's IP address in DNS responses, providing automatic failover across regions. Simple, weighted, and geolocation routing do not natively support automatic failover based on endpoint health.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Keep simple routing and lower the TTL to 10 seconds.
Why it's wrong here
A lower TTL can make clients refresh cached answers sooner, but simple routing still returns only one endpoint and does not provide primary/secondary failover behavior. It does not automatically switch traffic to the standby Region when the primary becomes unhealthy.
When this WOULD be correct
When the requirement is to distribute traffic evenly across multiple healthy endpoints without health-based failover, and the application can tolerate brief downtime during DNS propagation. For example, a static website hosted on multiple servers where manual failover is acceptable.
- ✗
Use weighted routing with equal weights for both ALBs.
Why it's wrong here
Weighted routing is useful for traffic splitting or gradual migration, but it is not the same as health-based disaster recovery. Equal weights do not create a primary endpoint with an automatic standby that is used only on failure.
When this WOULD be correct
When you need to distribute traffic across multiple endpoints with a specified ratio (e.g., 10% to one ALB and 90% to another) for A/B testing or gradual migration, and health checks are not required for automatic failover.
- ✗
Use geolocation routing so users in each continent reach a closer ALB.
Why it's wrong here
Geolocation routing selects DNS responses based on the client's geographic origin, typically to direct users to the nearest or regionally appropriate endpoint. It does not evaluate the health or availability of the target resources. If the primary region's ALB becomes unhealthy, geolocation will still return that ALB's IP to users in that region, causing an outage. It lacks the health-check-driven failover mechanism that Route 53 failover routing provides, so it cannot meet the requirement for automatic disaster recovery.
When this WOULD be correct
A company wants to direct users to the nearest application endpoint based on their geographic location to reduce latency, and each region's endpoint is stateless and can serve all users. In that case, geolocation routing is appropriate.
- ✓
Create Route 53 failover records with health checks for the primary and secondary ALBs.
Why this is correct
Failover routing is the Route 53 policy intended for this use case. Route 53 returns the primary record while its health check passes, and automatically serves the secondary record when the primary health check fails. That provides DNS-based Regional failover without manual intervention.
Option-by-option analysis
Why each answer is right or wrong
Understanding why wrong answers are wrong — and when they would be correct — is what separates a 750 score from a 900. The SAA-C03 exam frequently reuses these exact scenarios with slightly different constraints.
✓Create Route 53 failover records with health checks for the primary and secondary ALBs.Correct answer▾
Why this is correct
Failover routing is the Route 53 policy intended for this use case. Route 53 returns the primary record while its health check passes, and automatically serves the secondary record when the primary health check fails. That provides DNS-based Regional failover without manual intervention.
✗Keep simple routing and lower the TTL to 10 seconds.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Simple routing does not support health checks or automatic failover; lowering TTL only speeds up DNS propagation but does not enable failover to a secondary endpoint when the primary is unhealthy.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
When the requirement is to distribute traffic evenly across multiple healthy endpoints without health-based failover, and the application can tolerate brief downtime during DNS propagation. For example, a static website hosted on multiple servers where manual failover is acceptable.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think that a low TTL combined with simple routing can achieve fast failover by quickly updating DNS records, but they overlook that simple routing lacks health checks and automatic record switching.
✗Use weighted routing with equal weights for both ALBs.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Weighted routing distributes traffic based on weights, not health; it does not automatically failover to a healthy endpoint when the primary is unhealthy.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
When you need to distribute traffic across multiple endpoints with a specified ratio (e.g., 10% to one ALB and 90% to another) for A/B testing or gradual migration, and health checks are not required for automatic failover.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think equal weights provide load balancing and failover, but weighted routing lacks health-based automatic failover; it only splits traffic proportionally.
✗Use geolocation routing so users in each continent reach a closer ALB.Wrong answer — click to see why▾
Why this is wrong here
Geolocation routing directs traffic based on the user's geographic location, not health. It does not automatically failover to a secondary region when the primary endpoint is unhealthy; it would continue sending traffic from that region to the unhealthy endpoint.
★ When this WOULD be the correct answer
A company wants to direct users to the nearest application endpoint based on their geographic location to reduce latency, and each region's endpoint is stateless and can serve all users. In that case, geolocation routing is appropriate.
Why candidates choose this
Candidates may think geolocation routing can provide failover by routing users away from an unhealthy region, but it lacks health-based automatic failover and is designed for latency reduction, not disaster recovery.
Analysis generated from the official SAA-C03blueprint and verified against question context. The “when correct” sections are what AI assistants cite when candidates ask “what’s the difference between these options?”
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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