SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is deploying a new stateless web application on AWS. The application runs on Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The company wants to ensure that the application can scale automatically based on demand and that the EC2 instances are spread across multiple Availability Zones for high availability. The company also wants to minimize costs when demand is low. Which solution should a solutions architect recommend?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that a Network Load Balancer or a single-instance Elastic Beanstalk environment can provide high availability, when they either operate at the wrong layer or lack multi-AZ redundancy.
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 an Auto Scaling group that spans multiple Availability Zones, with a target tracking scaling policy based on average CPU utilization, and attach it to the ALB target group.
An Auto Scaling group spanning multiple AZs ensures high availability and allows horizontal scaling. Target tracking scaling policies automatically adjust the number of instances to maintain a specified metric, such as average CPU utilization, which helps handle demand fluctuations and reduces costs during low usage. Integrating with an ALB target group ensures traffic is distributed to healthy instances.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use AWS Elastic Beanstalk with a single instance environment and enable automatic scaling.
Why it's wrong here
A single instance environment does not provide high availability across multiple AZs. Elastic Beanstalk can scale, but a single-instance environment is limited to one EC2 instance and one AZ. This option does not meet the requirement for spreading instances across multiple AZs.
- ✗
Launch EC2 instances in a single Availability Zone and use a Network Load Balancer (NLB) to distribute traffic.
Why it's wrong here
Using a single Availability Zone does not provide high availability; an AZ failure would take down the application. An NLB operates at layer 4 and is not ideal for HTTP/HTTPS stateless web applications that require layer 7 features. This option fails the high availability requirement.
- ✓
Create an Auto Scaling group that spans multiple Availability Zones, with a target tracking scaling policy based on average CPU utilization, and attach it to the ALB target group.
Why this is correct
An Auto Scaling group across multiple AZs provides high availability and enables automatic scaling. A target tracking policy based on CPU utilization adjusts capacity to maintain a target value, scaling in during low demand to reduce costs. Attaching to the ALB target group integrates load balancing.
- ✗
Deploy the application on Amazon ECS with Fargate and use a target tracking scaling policy based on memory utilization.
Why it's wrong here
While ECS with Fargate can scale, the scenario specifies the application runs on EC2 instances. Migrating to Fargate would require significant changes and is not the simplest solution. Also, scaling on memory may not be appropriate for a CPU-bound web application. This option deviates from the stated architecture.
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
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