This SAP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of design for new solutions. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company is designing a containerized microservices architecture on Amazon ECS. The services must be able to discover each other using DNS names. Which AWS service should the company use for service discovery?
AWS Cloud Map
Cloud Map provides DNS-based service discovery for microservices.
Amazon Route 53 Resolver
Why wrong: Route 53 Resolver is for hybrid DNS resolution, not service discovery.
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)
Why wrong: ELB distributes traffic but does not provide DNS-based service discovery.
Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR)
Why wrong: ECR is a container image registry, not for service discovery.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
AWS Cloud Map
AWS Cloud Map is the correct choice because it provides a fully managed service discovery solution that integrates natively with Amazon ECS. It allows microservices to register their DNS names and health checks, enabling other services to discover them via DNS queries or API calls. This directly supports the requirement for containerized services to find each other using DNS names within an ECS cluster.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
AWS Cloud Map
Why this is correct
Cloud Map provides DNS-based service discovery for microservices.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Amazon Route 53 Resolver
Why it's wrong here
Route 53 Resolver is for hybrid DNS resolution, not service discovery.
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)
Why it's wrong here
ELB distributes traffic but does not provide DNS-based service discovery.
Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR)
Why it's wrong here
ECR is a container image registry, not for service discovery.
Common exam traps
The trap here is confusing a load balancer (ELB) with service discovery; candidates often think ELB provides DNS-based discovery, but it only routes traffic to a group of targets, not per-instance DNS names for dynamic microservice-to-microservice communication.
Detailed technical explanation
AWS Cloud Map uses a combination of DNS (A/AAAA records) and health checks to provide service discovery. When a service instance registers, Cloud Map creates a DNS record (e.g., `my-service.my-namespace`) and optionally runs health checks via Route 53. This allows ECS tasks to discover each other using standard DNS resolution, with support for SRV records for port information, which is critical for microservices that need to know both IP and port of a target.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.
What to study next
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FAQ
Design for New Solutions — This question tests Design for New Solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: AWS Cloud Map — AWS Cloud Map is the correct choice because it provides a fully managed service discovery solution that integrates natively with Amazon ECS. It allows microservices to register their DNS names and health checks, enabling other services to discover them via DNS queries or API calls. This directly supports the requirement for containerized services to find each other using DNS names within an ECS cluster.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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.
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