SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
A company has a monolithic application running on a single EC2 instance. The application experiences performance issues during peak hours. The company decides to migrate to a microservices architecture using AWS Lambda and Amazon API Gateway. The migration must be done incrementally without downtime. What strategy should the company use?
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
✓
Use the strangler fig pattern: implement API Gateway to route traffic to new Lambda functions for specific endpoints while keeping the monolith for others.
The strangler fig pattern allows incremental migration by routing specific API requests to new Lambda functions via API Gateway while keeping the monolithic application for the rest. This approach avoids downtime. Option A is incorrect because deploying all microservices in a new VPC and cutting over DNS risks downtime and is not incremental. Option B is incorrect because creating a new version of the monolith that calls Lambda functions still leaves the monolith in place and does not fully utilize API Gateway for routing. Option C is incorrect because CodeDeploy blue/green deployment is for deploying to EC2 or Lambda, but it does not provide a pattern for incremental migration of a monolith to microservices; the strangler fig pattern is more appropriate.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Deploy all microservices in a new VPC and cut over DNS after testing.
Why it's wrong here
Cutover causes downtime.
- ✗
Create a new version of the monolith that calls Lambda functions as backend.
Why it's wrong here
Still requires a full deploy.
- ✗
Use AWS CodeDeploy to perform a blue/green deployment of the monolith to Lambda.
Why it's wrong here
Monolith cannot be directly deployed to Lambda.
- ✓
Use the strangler fig pattern: implement API Gateway to route traffic to new Lambda functions for specific endpoints while keeping the monolith for others.
Why this is correct
Allows incremental migration without downtime.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SAP-C02 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 SAP-C02 exam.