SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
A company is deploying a web application on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. The application experiences high traffic during business hours and low traffic at night. The company wants to automatically scale the instances based on CPU utilization. Which TWO steps are required to achieve this?
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 a dynamic scaling policy based on the average CPU utilization metric.
To automatically scale EC2 instances based on CPU utilization, you need an Auto Scaling group to manage the instances (Option D) and a dynamic scaling policy based on the average CPU utilization metric (Option C). Option A is a scheduled scaling policy based on time, not CPU utilization. Option B is incorrect because a Network Load Balancer is not required for scaling based on CPU. Option E is incorrect because while a CloudWatch alarm can be used to trigger scaling, it is not a required step on its own; the scaling policy is the primary requirement.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Configure a scheduled scaling policy to add instances during business hours.
Why it's wrong here
Not based on CPU.
- ✗
Replace the ALB with a Network Load Balancer for better performance.
Why it's wrong here
Not related to scaling.
- ✓
Create a dynamic scaling policy based on the average CPU utilization metric.
Why this is correct
Scales based on CPU.
- ✓
Create an Auto Scaling group and associate it with the ALB.
Why this is correct
Required for scaling.
- ✗
Create a CloudWatch alarm that sends an email when CPU exceeds 80%.
Why it's wrong here
Notification only.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 1,660 original SAP-C02 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on SAP-C02
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company runs a web application on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. Users report intermittent slowdowns. CloudWatch metrics show high CPU utilization on the instances. The company wants to improve performance with minimal architectural changes. What should a solutions architect do?
medium- A.Use Amazon ElastiCache to offload database queries.
- ✓ B.Configure an Auto Scaling group with a dynamic scaling policy based on CPU utilization.
- C.Replace the EC2 instances with a larger instance type.
- D.Enable Amazon CloudFront in front of the ALB to cache content.
Why B: Auto Scaling with a dynamic scaling policy based on CPU utilization automatically adds or removes EC2 instances in response to load, handling spikes without manual intervention. This is a minimal architectural change. Option A is wrong because ElastiCache offloads database queries, but the high CPU may be from compute-intensive operations, not database. Option C is wrong because vertical scaling (larger instances) has an upper limit and may require downtime during resizing. Option D is wrong because CloudFront caches static content at the edge, but it does not reduce CPU load from dynamic requests or compute processing on the instances.
JA
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.