SAA-C03 domain
Design High-Performing Architectures
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All Design High-Performing Architectures questions (227)
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A Lambda function behind API Gateway has predictable traffic spikes every hour. The function does not need access to resources in a VPC, and p95 latency spikes are caused by cold starts during scale-out. Which two actions are most effective? Select two.
2An Aurora PostgreSQL application has an OLTP writer and a reporting dashboard that issues many read-only queries. The writer is healthy, but read latency rises noticeably during reporting windows. Which two changes should you make? Select two.
3A production application writes to an Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL cluster. Users report that during business-hour reporting runs, write latency increases. The application team wants to keep the writer focused on OLTP writes while still providing low-latency reads for reporting queries. What architectural approach should the solutions architect recommend?
4A DynamoDB table stores device status items. The partition key is deviceId, and the partition distribution is healthy (no single partition dominates). However, during peak periods the application experiences high read latency because many clients repeatedly request the latest status for the same devices. Which action best improves read latency without changing the DynamoDB partitioning model?
5A team is splitting a new workload into two fronts. The first front serves HTTPS microservices that need host- and path-based routing plus health checks. The second front must handle TCP and UDP traffic for a real-time service and preserve static IP addresses for firewall allowlisting. Which two AWS load balancer choices best match these requirements? Select two.
6An API team runs an AWS Lambda function behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). During predictable hourly traffic spikes, p95 response latency increases due to occasional cold starts. The team wants stable latency during those spikes without permanently overprovisioning resources for all functions. Which configuration is the most appropriate way to reduce cold starts for this Lambda function?
7A distributed simulation launches 40 EC2 instances that exchange small packets frequently and are sensitive to cross-instance latency. The workload stays in one Availability Zone and can use the same instance family across nodes. Which two choices improve network performance the most? Select two.
8A Lambda function behind an API needs consistent low latency. Traffic normally drops to near zero, then spikes several times per hour. During spikes, the p95 latency often spikes above 800 ms due to cold starts. The team wants to keep using Lambda (no containers) but minimize cold start impact during predictable spikes. What is the best AWS configuration to meet this goal?
9A media processing service runs ECS tasks in multiple Availability Zones. Each task must read and write the same shared filesystem with low latency because tasks stream intermediate artifacts to other tasks. The team currently mounts an EBS volume per task, and cross-AZ tasks frequently cannot see each other’s files. Which option best resolves the shared filesystem requirement while supporting high-performing access?
10An application uses DynamoDB to store order status. Reads happen extremely frequently for the same few keys (for example, the most recent orders), and the team wants lower read latency without changing the table’s partition key design. Which AWS service best fits this requirement?
11A company serves the same public content to many users through Amazon CloudFront. The origin is experiencing increased fetches because CloudFront cache hit rate is dropping. Most requests include an Authorization header and a custom header that changes per user. The response content is identical regardless of these headers. What change should the solutions architect make to restore a high cache hit rate?
12Your team runs a tightly coupled distributed workload (for example, synchronous training nodes) across many EC2 instances placed within a single cluster environment. The instances need low-latency networking to reduce delays at synchronization barriers. Which EC2 placement strategy should you use to improve inter-node latency?
13An order lookup API repeatedly reads the same few items from DynamoDB. The application can tolerate slightly stale data for a few seconds, and the team wants the lowest-latency design with minimal application changes. Which two changes should they make? Select two.
14A team needs to distribute TCP traffic (not HTTP) across multiple services. The services must see the original client source IP for auditing. Which AWS load balancer is the best fit?
15Your team hosts versioned static assets (for example, /static/app-<buildHash>.js). Each build hash never changes, but you release new files on new URLs. To maximize cache hit rate and reduce origin load using CloudFront, what should you do when generating HTTP responses for these assets?
16A research team runs a latency-sensitive distributed training job on Amazon EC2. They deploy 80 identical nodes that exchange small messages frequently and need low network jitter. The job must run entirely within one Availability Zone. Which placement group strategy should a solutions architect use to maximize intra-cluster network performance?
17A game streaming service must use UDP for real-time gameplay traffic. For external firewall allowlisting, the service requires stable, static IP addresses. The TLS handshake must be handled end-to-end by the application servers (the load balancer must not terminate TLS). Which AWS load balancing option best fits these requirements?
18A company runs an Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL database. The application performs frequent OLTP writes, but it also has a separate dashboard that runs heavy SELECT queries and is slowing down overall database performance. The writes must remain on the primary. What is the best approach to improve performance for the dashboard?
19A startup runs an HTTP/2 API that also supports WebSocket connections. They need path-based routing to separate microservices (for example, /api/* to Service A and /metrics/* to Service B) and want TLS terminated at the load balancer. Which AWS option best meets these requirements while maintaining high request performance?
20A backend API uses an AWS Lambda function behind API Gateway. The first requests after every weekly deployment experience cold starts, causing p95 latency spikes for a few minutes. Which configuration most directly prevents those cold starts for the published version?
21A DynamoDB table uses this schema: partition key = customerId, sort key = timestamp. During a marketing campaign, one customer generates extremely high read traffic and the application sees ProvisionedThroughputExceeded errors even though the table’s total capacity is sufficient. What change most directly improves read distribution across partitions?
22Based on the exhibit, what change should the team make to achieve the lowest possible network latency for the distributed workload?
23A marketing site serves versioned JavaScript and CSS files from Amazon S3 through CloudFront. Origin bandwidth costs are rising because CloudFront keeps revalidating objects and fetching too much content from the bucket. Which two changes most directly improve cache hit ratio and reduce origin load? Select two.
24An Aurora PostgreSQL cluster is experiencing high read latency because 85% of traffic consists of read-only queries. The write workload must stay on the writer instance, and the team wants to offload reads without changing the application’s core query patterns. What is the best architectural option?
25Based on the exhibit, which EBS volume type should the team use to meet the performance need at lower cost than overprovisioning capacity?
26A customer-facing application has a relational data model and needs frequent complex queries (joins and aggregations), but it also experiences a significant read-heavy workload. Which design choice best improves read performance while keeping relational features?
27An ECS service runs on EC2 capacity. During peak traffic, tasks frequently wait for available container instances. The team wants faster scale-out for the underlying EC2 capacity when tasks increase. What is the best first architectural step?
28A system uses multiple AWS Lambda functions behind different event sources. One Lambda occasionally spikes and causes other Lambdas to be throttled due to shared concurrency limits. Which setting best helps ensure the important Lambda keeps capacity during spikes?
29Based on the exhibit, which Amazon EFS performance mode is the best fit for this workload?
30Your application uses ElastiCache Redis as a cache for user profiles stored in DynamoDB. You must ensure that when a profile is updated, subsequent reads see the latest value quickly. Which cache strategy is generally the best fit for this requirement?
31Based on the exhibit, the team wants to improve application performance without changing the code. Which EC2 instance family should they choose next?
32Based on the exhibit, what change best reduces Lambda cold-start impact for a predictable user-upload workflow?
33A team runs a latency-sensitive service on EC2 and needs consistent, low-latency block storage for a database. The application requires predictable performance and should be fast for random reads/writes. Which EBS volume type is the best choice?
34A new feature stores user events in DynamoDB. Each event must be fetched by user_id and sorted by event_time. The team expects many different users and wants to avoid a single hot partition. Which partition key design is best?
35Based on the exhibit, which AWS feature should the team use to minimize network latency between EC2 instances that exchange messages very frequently?
36A web service runs on an Auto Scaling group (ASG). The team updates configuration (AMIs, environment variables) in a Launch Template and wants new instances created during scale-out to use the latest Launch Template version. What should the architect do?
37A team runs a stateless web app on Amazon EC2 behind an Application Load Balancer. During traffic spikes, new EC2 instances take several minutes to finish bootstrapping before they can receive traffic. Which Auto Scaling configuration most directly reduces the time until additional capacity is available?
38A company runs a stateless application tier behind an Application Load Balancer. Match each observed scaling pattern on the left to the best Auto Scaling strategy or metric on the right.
39A compute workload uses temporary scratch space for intermediate results (reproducible), and it can tolerate data loss if the instance is terminated. The workload benefits from very high local I/O throughput. Which storage option is the best fit for the scratch data?
40Based on the exhibit, which change best reduces latency during peak traffic without overprovisioning the fleet?
41A retail analytics app uses Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL. Read traffic is growing, and the database CPU spikes mainly due to SELECT-heavy workloads. Writes are less frequent, and the app can tolerate eventually consistent reads for the reports. What is the most appropriate AWS-native way to improve read performance with minimal application changes?
42A media company uses CloudFront in front of an S3 bucket origin for video thumbnails. They want to prevent users from bypassing CloudFront and accessing the S3 bucket directly, while still allowing CloudFront to fetch objects. What is the best option?
43Based on the exhibit, which change will most improve the CloudFront cache hit ratio for the static assets while still serving the same files to all users?
44Based on the exhibit, what is the best change to improve read performance without increasing write latency on the primary database?
45Based on the exhibit, which storage design best supports the application servers' shared working directory requirement?
46Based on the exhibit, which design change is the best way to reduce the observed read latency for this DynamoDB-backed service?
47A media platform serves global users through Amazon CloudFront and an S3 origin. Match each requirement on the left to the CloudFront configuration or behavior on the right.
48Based on the exhibit, which storage choice best matches the workload requirements?
49A company runs a stateless web API on Amazon EC2 behind an Application Load Balancer. The team notices that during business hours, the ALB starts queueing requests and the average request latency rises. They want to scale out quickly and reliably based on demand, not CPU alone. Which Auto Scaling approach best matches this requirement?
50A company serves mostly static images and JavaScript files from an origin in one AWS Region. They want to reduce origin load and improve global performance. Which change most directly increases cache-hit ratio for static assets while avoiding stale content?
51A company runs a stateless application tier behind an Application Load Balancer. Match each observed scaling pattern on the left to the best Auto Scaling strategy or metric on the right.
52A company runs a stateless web API on Amazon EC2 behind an Application Load Balancer. The team notices that during business hours, the ALB starts queueing requests and the average request latency rises. They want to scale out quickly and reliably based on demand, not CPU alone. Which Auto Scaling approach best matches this requirement?
53Based on the exhibit, which change best reduces latency during peak traffic without overprovisioning the fleet?
54Based on the exhibit, which storage choice best matches the workload requirements?
55Based on the exhibit, which design change is the best way to reduce the observed read latency for this DynamoDB-backed service?
56Based on the exhibit, which change will most improve the CloudFront cache hit ratio for the static assets while still serving the same files to all users?
57A media platform serves global users through Amazon CloudFront and an S3 origin. Match each requirement on the left to the CloudFront configuration or behavior on the right.
58A retail analytics app uses Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL. Read traffic is growing, and the database CPU spikes mainly due to SELECT-heavy workloads. Writes are less frequent, and the app can tolerate eventually consistent reads for the reports. What is the most appropriate AWS-native way to improve read performance with minimal application changes?
59Based on the exhibit, what is the best change to improve read performance without increasing write latency on the primary database?
60A company serves mostly static images and JavaScript files from an origin in one AWS Region. They want to reduce origin load and improve global performance. Which change most directly increases cache-hit ratio for static assets while avoiding stale content?
61A team runs a stateless web app on Amazon EC2 behind an Application Load Balancer. During traffic spikes, new EC2 instances take several minutes to finish bootstrapping before they can receive traffic. Which Auto Scaling configuration most directly reduces the time until additional capacity is available?
62Based on the exhibit, which storage design best supports the application servers' shared working directory requirement?
63A compute workload uses temporary scratch space for intermediate results (reproducible), and it can tolerate data loss if the instance is terminated. The workload benefits from very high local I/O throughput. Which storage option is the best fit for the scratch data?
64A media company uses CloudFront in front of an S3 bucket origin for video thumbnails. They want to prevent users from bypassing CloudFront and accessing the S3 bucket directly, while still allowing CloudFront to fetch objects. What is the best option?
65Based on the exhibit, what change best reduces Lambda cold-start impact for a predictable user-upload workflow?
66Based on the exhibit, the team wants to improve application performance without changing the code. Which EC2 instance family should they choose next?
67A system uses multiple AWS Lambda functions behind different event sources. One Lambda occasionally spikes and causes other Lambdas to be throttled due to shared concurrency limits. Which setting best helps ensure the important Lambda keeps capacity during spikes?
68Based on the exhibit, which Amazon EFS performance mode is the best fit for this workload?
69A web service runs on an Auto Scaling group (ASG). The team updates configuration (AMIs, environment variables) in a Launch Template and wants new instances created during scale-out to use the latest Launch Template version. What should the architect do?
70Your application uses ElastiCache Redis as a cache for user profiles stored in DynamoDB. You must ensure that when a profile is updated, subsequent reads see the latest value quickly. Which cache strategy is generally the best fit for this requirement?
71Based on the exhibit, which AWS feature should the team use to minimize network latency between EC2 instances that exchange messages very frequently?
72A team runs a latency-sensitive service on EC2 and needs consistent, low-latency block storage for a database. The application requires predictable performance and should be fast for random reads/writes. Which EBS volume type is the best choice?
73A customer-facing application has a relational data model and needs frequent complex queries (joins and aggregations), but it also experiences a significant read-heavy workload. Which design choice best improves read performance while keeping relational features?
74A new feature stores user events in DynamoDB. Each event must be fetched by user_id and sorted by event_time. The team expects many different users and wants to avoid a single hot partition. Which partition key design is best?
75Based on the exhibit, which EBS volume type should the team use to meet the performance need at lower cost than overprovisioning capacity?
76An ECS service runs on EC2 capacity. During peak traffic, tasks frequently wait for available container instances. The team wants faster scale-out for the underlying EC2 capacity when tasks increase. What is the best first architectural step?
77A web application uses an Amazon Aurora DB cluster for a read-heavy workload. The application team needs higher read throughput but cannot change the database schema. They want to avoid blocking writes and are willing to route read traffic separately. What is the most appropriate architecture change?
78A team serves image files from S3 through CloudFront. During a performance review, they notice that CloudFront cache hit ratio is low and the S3 origin receives many repeated requests for the same images. Request URLs include a volatile query parameter called 'sessionId' that changes for each user, but the image content is identical regardless of 'sessionId'. What configuration change will most effectively increase cache hit ratio?
79A trading analytics system deploys 10 EC2 instances that exchange very frequent, low-latency messages over the network. The instances must be placed as close together as possible to minimize network hop count and inter-node jitter. Which deployment choice best matches this requirement?
80Your company currently uses an Application Load Balancer (ALB) in front of a service that receives a large number of TCP and UDP packets (including UDP-based telemetry). During load tests, you need to support both TCP and UDP traffic at high throughput while keeping stable IP endpoints for a downstream firewall allowlist. Which change best meets these requirements?
81A DynamoDB-backed multi-tenant app experiences throttling. Most write traffic for tenant 'ACME' targets a single logical stream of events (you write items for ACME in near-real time). The table currently uses partition key = tenantId and sort key = eventTimestamp. CloudWatch shows partition-level throttling concentrated in the ACME partition. What design change most directly improves write throughput for the hottest tenant while still enabling efficient queries for recent events for that tenant?
82A serverless API built with AWS Lambda serves latency-sensitive requests. The team observes intermittent slow responses during traffic ramp-ups and expects some users to hit the API immediately after a period of inactivity. Which configuration best reduces cold-start latency during these ramp-ups?
83A media processing pipeline uses EBS-backed storage for an application that performs sustained random I/O with low latency requirements. During peak processing windows, the team sees increased read latency and occasional timeouts at the application layer. They need predictable, high IOPS performance rather than best-effort throughput. Which EBS configuration choice is most appropriate?
84Your mobile app writes events to a single DynamoDB table with partition key = customerId and sort key = eventTime. During a promotional campaign, one tenant ("ACME") generates far more traffic than others. CloudWatch shows sustained throttling (ProvisionedThroughputExceeded) and elevated p99 latency only for that tenant. The workload pattern cannot be changed to a completely different schema, but you can change how items are partitioned. Which design change is most likely to reduce the hot-partition throttling while keeping efficient reads for ACME?
85A marketing team uses CloudFront with an S3 origin to serve a single-page web app. After a release, CloudFront cache hit ratio dropped sharply. The app requests the same static JS and CSS assets, but each request includes a unique tracking query parameter (for example, ?utm_source=campaign123, campaign456, etc.). You want CloudFront to cache those assets efficiently even when the tracking query parameter changes. What should you do?
86You run a web application on an EC2 Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). During scheduled traffic spikes, new instances launch but customers occasionally see 5xx errors for the first few minutes after scale-out. Operational logs show instances need ~4 minutes to warm up (load caches and initialize dependencies). ALB target health becomes healthy only after this warm-up. Which change most directly improves performance during spikes by reducing the time to serve traffic after scaling?
87A data processing application runs on a single EC2 instance and needs persistent block storage with sustained low-latency random read/write performance (high IOPS). Which storage choice is most appropriate?
88A trading analytics system deploys multiple EC2 instances that exchange very frequent, low-latency, east-west messages. The application team wants the instances to be placed to minimize network latency and variability. Which AWS feature should they use?
89Your team serves static JavaScript and CSS files from an S3 origin through CloudFront. After a release, the CloudFront cache hit ratio dropped because clients keep re-downloading the same assets. What is the best next change to improve caching performance?
90A DynamoDB-backed multi-tenant app experiences throttling during a promotion. Most writes and reads target tenant "ACME" and use the same partition key value, causing a hot partition. Which design change most directly improves performance?
91A service performs many repeated read requests for the same DynamoDB items. The reads are latency-sensitive, but the application can tolerate slightly stale data. Which AWS service is the best fit to reduce read latency?
92An application uses an Amazon Aurora cluster. The workload becomes read-heavy, but the team cannot change the database schema. They need higher read throughput while keeping writes on the primary. What should they do?
93A latency-sensitive API is implemented with AWS Lambda. During traffic ramp-ups, users sometimes experience slow responses due to cold starts. The team wants to ensure fast initialization for a baseline level of concurrent requests. Which AWS feature should they use?
94A distributed system needs extremely low network latency between a set of EC2 instances running the same workload. The team wants the instances to be placed as close together as AWS allows to reduce round-trip time. Which placement strategy should the architect use?
95A web API runs on an Auto Scaling group (ASG) behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). During traffic spikes, users experience request timeouts even though CPU stays below 40%. After investigation, you find the ASG often has too few healthy targets to handle the current request rate. Which change will best improve responsiveness during spikes?
96A DynamoDB-backed event processing system experiences throttling during a promotion. All events are written and read using the same partition key value (tenantId = "ACME"). The workload is time-ordered per tenant, and the application can tolerate slight reordering across partitions. Which design change will most directly increase throughput and reduce hot-partition throttling?
97A team serves static assets from an S3 origin through CloudFront. Cache hit ratio is low. Analytics show that requests include an Authorization header (even though the assets are public) and the cache key currently varies on that header, causing CloudFront to treat the same asset as different cache entries. What is the best change to improve cache hit ratio without breaking access controls?
98A containerized service fleet running on EC2 instances needs to share user-uploaded files and access them with low latency. The workload is bursty: sometimes dozens of instances concurrently read the same directory for short periods, and then traffic drops. Which Amazon EFS configuration best matches these performance needs?
99A media platform runs a CPU-heavy thumbnail generation workload on an EC2 Auto Scaling group using t3.large instances. During peak traffic, p95 processing time increases significantly even though average CPU remains around 40–50%. CloudWatch also shows CPU credit depletion behavior. Which change will most directly improve performance predictability for this workload?
100Your company needs a high-throughput, low-latency TCP service using a custom binary protocol. Requirements: preserve the original client source IP for rate limiting, keep latency minimal, and use TCP health checks. The current setup uses an Application Load Balancer and performance is inconsistent. Which load balancer choice best meets these requirements?
101A site serves static assets (JS/CSS) through CloudFront from an S3 origin. After a recent frontend change, CloudFront shows a cache hit ratio below 20%. In CloudFront access logs, requests to the same asset URL path differ by a query parameter named rnd (a random value appended by the app on every request). The origin content is identical regardless of rnd. What is the best CloudFront configuration change to restore effective caching?
102An event ingestion service writes to a DynamoDB table where the partition key is tenantId and the sort key is eventTime. During a campaign, one tenant generates a disproportionate share of traffic, causing write throttling and increased latency for that tenant’s writes. You can change the data model and application queries, but you must still efficiently retrieve events for a tenant for the last 10 minutes. Which change best improves write throughput by reducing hot partitions?
103A media company serves versioned JavaScript and CSS from an S3 origin through CloudFront. After a release, the cache hit ratio drops because the SPA sends an Authorization header and several tracking query strings on every request, even though the assets are public and identical for all users. Which changes would most improve cache efficiency without changing the content returned? Select three.
104An event-ingestion application writes telemetry to DynamoDB with partition key tenantId and sort key eventTime. During a promotion, one tenant generates 10 times the normal traffic. Dashboards repeatedly query the most recent items for that tenant, and they can tolerate slightly stale data. Which changes would most effectively reduce throttling and improve responsiveness? Select three.
105A rendering service runs on a single EC2 instance and writes a large working set of metadata to disk using sustained random reads and writes. The data must persist across stops and restarts, and the team sees queue depth spikes when the job reaches peak throughput. Which changes should the team make? Select three.
106A static website stores assets in S3 and is delivered through CloudFront. Analytics show low cache hit ratio, many origin fetches for the same JavaScript bundles, and elevated S3 GET request costs. Most requests include unnecessary cookies, and the text assets are uncompressed. Which changes should the team make? Select three.
107A latency-sensitive telemetry service uses a custom TCP protocol on EC2 instances in private subnets. The service must preserve the client source IP for rate limiting, avoid HTTP header inspection, and keep per-request overhead as low as possible. Which changes should the team make? Select three.
108A customer portal uses Amazon Aurora MySQL. The application currently sends all SELECT queries to the writer instance endpoint. During traffic spikes, read latency increases, and the team wants the cluster to survive a writer failover without manual endpoint changes for the application. Which changes should the team make? Select three.
109A serverless checkout API runs on AWS Lambda behind API Gateway. Traffic spikes are predictable every weekday at 09:00 UTC, and p95 latency jumps for the first few minutes after each deployment because execution environments are cold. The team wants to reduce this startup impact without changing the API contract. Which changes should they make? Select three.
110A low-latency market-data engine runs 10 EC2 instances that exchange small messages thousands of times per second. The team wants the lowest possible network latency and jitter, and they can tolerate single-AZ placement for this tier because another layer handles disaster recovery. Which changes should they make? Select three.
111Multiple EC2 instances need a shared filesystem so they can concurrently read and write the same files (for example, user uploads and rendered assets). The instances are in different Availability Zones and must mount the filesystem using NFS. Which AWS storage service best fits?
112A latency-sensitive trading workload runs on 6 EC2 instances. You must distribute the instances so they do NOT share the same underlying hardware rack, reducing the risk of correlated rack-level faults. Which EC2 placement group strategy best meets this requirement?
113A 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?
114Your web application runs on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). During traffic spikes, p95 response time increases, but average CPU utilization remains below 40%. The current Auto Scaling policy scales based on average CPU%. What should you change to improve performance during spikes?
115A company serves public JavaScript and CSS files from S3 using CloudFront. After a frontend change, customers report a low CloudFront cache hit ratio. Requests now include an Authorization header, but these assets do not require authentication. The CloudFront distribution is configured such that Authorization is included in the cache key. Which change best maximizes cache reuse?
116An application repeatedly reads the same DynamoDB items with very low latency requirements. The application can tolerate slightly stale data (for example, within a few seconds). You want to improve read latency without changing the existing DynamoDB table schema. Which service is the best choice?
117A web application uses an Amazon Aurora DB cluster. The workload is becoming read-heavy, and the application team wants to increase read throughput without changing the database schema. They can adjust the application to route reads differently. What should they do?
118A multi-tenant event system writes and reads data in DynamoDB. One tenant generates most of the traffic, causing throttling on a single partition key value, and the dashboards repeatedly read the most recent items for that tenant. Which two changes should the team make to improve performance? Select two.
119A distributed analytics platform runs on 12 EC2 instances in one Availability Zone. The nodes exchange a very high volume of east-west messages and the team wants the lowest possible network latency between instances. Which two changes should the architect make first? Select two.
120A marketing site serves versioned JavaScript and CSS from an Amazon S3 origin through Amazon CloudFront. After each release, the cache hit ratio drops sharply because clients keep sending request headers and query strings that are not needed for asset retrieval. Which two changes should improve cache efficiency the most? Select two.
121A web application uses an Amazon Aurora DB cluster for a read-heavy workload. The team wants to increase read throughput without changing the database schema or rewriting application data access patterns. Which two changes should they make? Select two.
122A CPU-bound batch rendering service runs on EC2. The application is Linux-based, compatible with ARM64, and the team wants the best throughput per dollar without changing the workload's architecture. Which two instance-family choices should the team consider first? Select two.
123A single EC2 instance hosts a low-latency database cache that writes a large random working set to block storage. The application needs sustained high IOPS and low latency, and the storage must remain attached to the instance while it runs. Which two design choices best meet the requirement? Select two.
124Based on the exhibit, a media company serves versioned JavaScript and CSS files from an Amazon S3 origin through CloudFront. After a frontend release, the cache hit ratio dropped sharply even though the file names are versioned. The application team says the browser requests include the same Authorization header on every asset request because the frontend and API share one domain. What should the solutions architect do to improve CloudFront cache hit ratio without changing the application authentication model for the API?
125Based on the exhibit, a retail analytics service repeatedly reads the same DynamoDB items during an active campaign. The business can tolerate data that is a few seconds stale, but the application must minimize latency and reduce pressure on DynamoDB. A load test shows that 80% of reads target only 200 item keys. What should the solutions architect implement?
126Based on the exhibit, an application runs on Amazon Aurora MySQL. The writer instance is frequently near 85% CPU while the reader instance is under 20% CPU. Application traces show that most of the database traffic is read-only SELECT queries, but the code currently sends all queries to the writer endpoint. What should the solutions architect recommend to improve performance with the smallest functional change?
127Based on the exhibit, a serverless checkout API is implemented in AWS Lambda and deployed in one Region. The function has a cold-start time of 700-900 ms on the first request after idle periods. Marketing launches a predictable traffic spike every weekday at 09:00 UTC, and the p95 latency target is under 150 ms during the first five minutes of the spike. What should the solutions architect do to meet the latency target while controlling cost?
128Based on the exhibit, a trading platform exposes a custom binary TCP protocol to partner systems. The service must preserve the original client source IP for rate limiting, support TLS pass-through to the application, and minimize network latency. The team also wants a simple architecture that can scale across multiple Availability Zones. What load balancing option should the solutions architect choose?
129Based on the exhibit, a media rendering job runs on a single EC2 instance and writes a large working set of metadata to block storage. The workload performs sustained random reads and writes and must keep latency consistently low for the entire run. The instance may be stopped and started between jobs, and the data must persist. Which storage choice best meets the requirements?
130Based on the exhibit, a low-latency analytics platform runs 10 EC2 instances in the same Availability Zone. The nodes exchange a very high volume of east-west messages and must experience the lowest possible network latency and jitter. A separate operations team also wants to reduce the risk that all nodes land on the same physical hardware rack. Which placement strategy should the solutions architect use?
131Based on the exhibit, a batch-processing service runs on Amazon EC2. The workload is Linux-based, can run on ARM64, and is CPU-bound during its nightly processing window. The team wants the best throughput per dollar without changing the application logic. Which EC2 instance family should the solutions architect recommend?
132Based on the exhibit, a web application runs on an Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer. During traffic surges, the average CPU utilization stays below 35%, but request latency increases sharply and the ALB access logs show far more requests per target than expected. Which change is the best way to improve scaling behavior?
133Based on the exhibit, a DynamoDB-backed event processing system is throttling during a promotion. The table uses tenantId as the partition key and eventTime as the sort key. One tenant accounts for most of the write traffic, and the application must preserve fast lookups for that tenant without relying on a single hot partition. What change is the best fix?
134Based on the exhibit, an Amazon Aurora MySQL application is read-heavy, but the database writer is nearing CPU limits while the reader instance is mostly idle. The application currently sends all queries to the writer endpoint. Which change should you make first to increase read throughput?
135Based on the exhibit, a static asset distribution site uses Amazon CloudFront with an S3 origin. The assets are versioned by filename, but the cache hit ratio remains low after each release. Which CloudFront change is the best way to improve cache reuse without changing the origin objects?
136Based on the exhibit, an application repeatedly reads the same DynamoDB items with extremely low latency requirements. The business can tolerate data that is a few seconds stale. Which architecture change best improves read performance?
137Based on the exhibit, a serverless API on AWS Lambda experiences a predictable cold-start penalty every weekday at 09:00 UTC when a marketing campaign begins. The team wants the first requests to stay fast while minimizing extra cost during quiet periods. What is the best approach?
138Based on the exhibit, a distributed analytics workload runs on 12 EC2 instances in one Availability Zone. The nodes exchange thousands of small messages per second and require the lowest possible intra-cluster latency and jitter. Which EC2 placement strategy is the best fit?
139Based on the exhibit, a single EC2 instance hosts a latency-sensitive cache that performs sustained random reads and writes to persistent block storage. The current EBS volume is a general-purpose SSD, but BurstBalance is repeatedly depleted and p95 I/O latency has risen above 20 ms. The workload needs more than 16,000 sustained IOPS. Which change is the best fix?
140A media company serves versioned JavaScript and CSS files from Amazon S3 through CloudFront. After each release, the cache hit ratio drops sharply because the same distribution also fronts a personalized API path, and the current cache policy forwards cookies, all query strings, and several headers to every origin request. The static assets already use content-hashed filenames. Which two changes will most directly improve cache hit ratio for the static assets without changing the application behavior? Select two.
141A retail analytics table stores events in Amazon DynamoDB with partition key tenantId and sort key eventTime. During a promotion, one tenant generates most writes and repeatedly polls the same latest-status items, causing throttling on a single partition key and high latency on reads. The business can tolerate read results that are a few seconds stale. Which two changes will most effectively reduce throttling and latency? Select two.
142A distributed analytics engine runs 12 EC2 instances in one Availability Zone. The nodes exchange thousands of tiny messages per second and must keep jitter as low as possible. The current design launches the instances across multiple placement groups and uses general-purpose burstable instances. Which two changes will most directly lower east-west network latency and variability? Select two.
143A serverless checkout API uses AWS Lambda behind API Gateway. Every weekday at 09:00 UTC, marketing triggers a predictable surge. The first few minutes after each surge show cold-start latency, but traffic volume is forecastable and the business wants stable p95 latency. Which two changes should the team implement? Select two.
144A partner integration sends a custom binary TCP protocol to a service running on EC2 instances in private subnets. The partners require static endpoint IPs for allowlisting, and the application must see the original client source IP for rate limiting. Which two changes best fit the protocol and network requirements? Select two.
145An application uses Amazon Aurora MySQL. CloudWatch shows the writer instance near 85% CPU while the only reader instance averages 15% CPU. Trace logs show that all SELECT statements still target the writer endpoint. The workload is read-heavy, and the application already tolerates eventual consistency for reads. Which two changes will best increase total read throughput without a schema redesign? Select two.
146Multiple EC2 instances in different Availability Zones need concurrent read/write access to the same shared files. The files are actively modified by several application servers, and low-latency metadata operations matter more than extremely high aggregate throughput. Which two changes should the team make? Select two.
147A nightly video rendering pipeline runs on Linux EC2 instances and is compatible with ARM64. The jobs are CPU-bound, checkpoint frequently, and can resume if interrupted. The business wants the best throughput per dollar for the batch window. Which two changes should the team make? Select two.
148A media company serves versioned JavaScript and CSS files from an Amazon S3 origin through CloudFront. After each release, origin requests spike even though the files are public. Browser requests include a tracking cookie, an Authorization header, and a cache-busting query string that the site no longer needs. Which three changes will most improve the CloudFront cache hit ratio without exposing private content? Select three.
149A global video platform serves mostly static images and JavaScript files from an S3 origin. Users in distant countries report slow load times. What should improve performance most?
150A DynamoDB table for a retail API has a partition key based only on the current date. Write throttling occurs during business hours. What is the best design change?
151A read-heavy document portal repeatedly queries the same product catalogue data from DynamoDB with millisecond latency requirements. Which service can reduce read latency and table load?
152A analytics dashboard uses RDS MySQL and receives many read-only reporting queries that slow down the primary database. What should the architect add?
153A latency-sensitive mobile game backend uploads large files to S3 from users around the world. Which two features can improve upload performance?
154A Lambda-based travel booking site has unpredictable traffic spikes and users see latency caused by cold starts. The function must respond consistently during expected campaign windows. What should be configured?
155A media archive requires consistent high IOPS for a transactional database on EC2. Which EBS volume type is most suitable?
156A 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?
157A video platform uses Amazon Aurora. The workload has many short-lived database connections from Lambda functions, causing connection storms. What should be added?
158A retail API uses EC2 instances behind an ALB. CPU is consistently high during peak traffic, and request latency rises. What should be configured?
159A document portal needs low-latency full-text search across product descriptions and filtered attributes. Which managed service is most suitable?
160A high-volume analytics dashboard writes streaming click events that must be processed by multiple independent consumers. Which service is most appropriate?
161A global mobile game backend serves mostly static images and JavaScript files from an S3 origin. Users in distant countries report slow load times. What should improve performance most?
162A DynamoDB table for a travel booking site has a partition key based only on the current date. Write throttling occurs during business hours. What is the best design change?
163A read-heavy media archive repeatedly queries the same product catalogue data from DynamoDB with millisecond latency requirements. Which service can reduce read latency and table load?
164A telemetry pipeline uses RDS MySQL and receives many read-only reporting queries that slow down the primary database. What should the architect add?
165A latency-sensitive video platform uploads large files to S3 from users around the world. Which two features can improve upload performance?
166A Lambda-based retail API has unpredictable traffic spikes and users see latency caused by cold starts. The function must respond consistently during expected campaign windows. What should be configured?
167A document portal requires consistent high IOPS for a transactional database on EC2. Which EBS volume type is most suitable?
168A analytics dashboard 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?
169A mobile game backend uses Amazon Aurora. The workload has many short-lived database connections from Lambda functions, causing connection storms. What should be added?
170A travel booking site uses EC2 instances behind an ALB. CPU is consistently high during peak traffic, and request latency rises. What should be configured?
171A media archive needs low-latency full-text search across product descriptions and filtered attributes. Which managed service is most suitable?
172A high-volume telemetry pipeline writes streaming click events that must be processed by multiple independent consumers. Which service is most appropriate?
173A global video platform serves mostly static images and JavaScript files from an S3 origin. Users in distant countries report slow load times. What should improve performance most? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
174A DynamoDB table for a retail API has a partition key based only on the current date. Write throttling occurs during business hours. What is the best design change? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
175A read-heavy document portal repeatedly queries the same product catalogue data from DynamoDB with millisecond latency requirements. Which service can reduce read latency and table load? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
176A analytics dashboard uses RDS MySQL and receives many read-only reporting queries that slow down the primary database. What should the architect add? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
177A latency-sensitive mobile game backend uploads large files to S3 from users around the world. Which two features can improve upload performance? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
178A Lambda-based travel booking site has unpredictable traffic spikes and users see latency caused by cold starts. The function must respond consistently during expected campaign windows. What should be configured? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
179A media archive requires consistent high IOPS for a transactional database on EC2. Which EBS volume type is most suitable? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
180A 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 design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
181A video platform uses Amazon Aurora. The workload has many short-lived database connections from Lambda functions, causing connection storms. What should be added? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
182A retail API uses EC2 instances behind an ALB. CPU is consistently high during peak traffic, and request latency rises. What should be configured? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
183A document portal needs low-latency full-text search across product descriptions and filtered attributes. Which managed service is most suitable? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
184A high-volume analytics dashboard writes streaming click events that must be processed by multiple independent consumers. Which service is most appropriate? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
185A global mobile game backend serves mostly static images and JavaScript files from an S3 origin. Users in distant countries report slow load times. What should improve performance most? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
186A DynamoDB table for a travel booking site has a partition key based only on the current date. Write throttling occurs during business hours. What is the best design change? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
187A read-heavy media archive repeatedly queries the same product catalogue data from DynamoDB with millisecond latency requirements. Which service can reduce read latency and table load? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
188A telemetry pipeline uses RDS MySQL and receives many read-only reporting queries that slow down the primary database. What should the architect add? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
189A latency-sensitive video platform uploads large files to S3 from users around the world. Which two features can improve upload performance? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
190A Lambda-based retail API has unpredictable traffic spikes and users see latency caused by cold starts. The function must respond consistently during expected campaign windows. What should be configured? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
191A document portal requires consistent high IOPS for a transactional database on EC2. Which EBS volume type is most suitable? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
192A analytics dashboard 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 design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
193A mobile game backend uses Amazon Aurora. The workload has many short-lived database connections from Lambda functions, causing connection storms. What should be added? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
194A travel booking site uses EC2 instances behind an ALB. CPU is consistently high during peak traffic, and request latency rises. What should be configured? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
195A media archive needs low-latency full-text search across product descriptions and filtered attributes. Which managed service is most suitable? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
196A high-volume telemetry pipeline writes streaming click events that must be processed by multiple independent consumers. Which service is most appropriate? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
197A global video platform serves mostly static images and JavaScript files from an S3 origin. Users in distant countries report slow load times. What should improve performance most? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
198A DynamoDB table for a retail API has a partition key based only on the current date. Write throttling occurs during business hours. What is the best design change? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
199A read-heavy document portal repeatedly queries the same product catalogue data from DynamoDB with millisecond latency requirements. Which service can reduce read latency and table load? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
200A analytics dashboard uses RDS MySQL and receives many read-only reporting queries that slow down the primary database. What should the architect add? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
201A latency-sensitive mobile game backend uploads large files to S3 from users around the world. Which two features can improve upload performance? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
202A Lambda-based travel booking site has unpredictable traffic spikes and users see latency caused by cold starts. The function must respond consistently during expected campaign windows. What should be configured? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
203A media archive requires consistent high IOPS for a transactional database on EC2. Which EBS volume type is most suitable? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
204A 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.
205A video platform uses Amazon Aurora. The workload has many short-lived database connections from Lambda functions, causing connection storms. What should be added? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
206A retail API uses EC2 instances behind an ALB. CPU is consistently high during peak traffic, and request latency rises. What should be configured? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
207A document portal needs low-latency full-text search across product descriptions and filtered attributes. Which managed service is most suitable? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
208A high-volume analytics dashboard writes streaming click events that must be processed by multiple independent consumers. Which service is most appropriate? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
209A global mobile game backend serves mostly static images and JavaScript files from an S3 origin. Users in distant countries report slow load times. What should improve performance most? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
210A DynamoDB table for a travel booking site has a partition key based only on the current date. Write throttling occurs during business hours. What is the best design change? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
211A read-heavy media archive repeatedly queries the same product catalogue data from DynamoDB with millisecond latency requirements. Which service can reduce read latency and table load? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
212A telemetry pipeline uses RDS MySQL and receives many read-only reporting queries that slow down the primary database. What should the architect add? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
213A latency-sensitive video platform uploads large files to S3 from users around the world. Which two features can improve upload performance? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
214A Lambda-based retail API has unpredictable traffic spikes and users see latency caused by cold starts. The function must respond consistently during expected campaign windows. What should be configured? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
215A document portal requires consistent high IOPS for a transactional database on EC2. Which EBS volume type is most suitable? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
216A analytics dashboard 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.
217A mobile game backend uses Amazon Aurora. The workload has many short-lived database connections from Lambda functions, causing connection storms. What should be added? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
218A travel booking site uses EC2 instances behind an ALB. CPU is consistently high during peak traffic, and request latency rises. What should be configured? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
219A media archive needs low-latency full-text search across product descriptions and filtered attributes. Which managed service is most suitable? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
220A high-volume telemetry pipeline writes streaming click events that must be processed by multiple independent consumers. Which service is most appropriate? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.
221A global video platform serves mostly static images and JavaScript files from an S3 origin. Users in distant countries report slow load times. What should improve performance most? The team wants the control to be enforceable during normal operations.
222A DynamoDB table for a retail API has a partition key based only on the current date. Write throttling occurs during business hours. What is the best design change? The team wants the control to be enforceable during normal operations.
223A read-heavy document portal repeatedly queries the same product catalogue data from DynamoDB with millisecond latency requirements. Which service can reduce read latency and table load? The team wants the control to be enforceable during normal operations.
224A analytics dashboard uses RDS MySQL and receives many read-only reporting queries that slow down the primary database. What should the architect add? The team wants the control to be enforceable during normal operations.
225A latency-sensitive mobile game backend uploads large files to S3 from users around the world. Which two features can improve upload performance? The team wants the control to be enforceable during normal operations.
226A Lambda-based travel booking site has unpredictable traffic spikes and users see latency caused by cold starts. The function must respond consistently during expected campaign windows. What should be configured? The team wants the control to be enforceable during normal operations.
227A media archive requires consistent high IOPS for a transactional database on EC2. Which EBS volume type is most suitable? The team wants the control to be enforceable during normal operations.
Watch out for
Common Design High-Performing Architectures exam traps
- ▸Answering from memory before reading the full scenario.
- ▸Missing a constraint such as cost, availability, security, scope or command context.
- ▸Choosing a broad answer when the question asks for the most specific fix.
- ▸Ignoring why the wrong options are tempting.
Frequently asked questions
- What does the Design High-Performing Architectures domain cover on the SAA-C03 exam?
- Design High-Performing Architectures questions test whether you can apply the concept in context, not just recognise a definition.
- How many questions are in this domain?
- This page lists all 227 Design High-Performing Architectures questions in the SAA-C03 question bank. The actual exam draws from this domain proportionally to its weighting in the official exam blueprint.
- What is the best way to practise this domain?
- Start with a short focused session (10 questions) to identify gaps, then use the interactive practice page to work through explanations. Repeat with a longer session once the weak areas feel solid.
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- Yes — the session launcher on this page filters questions to this domain only. Choose any session length or try the interactive practice page for inline explanations.