- A
Use Amazon Route 53 health checks to monitor the primary application and configure DNS failover to the secondary Region.
Route 53 health checks and failover route traffic to the secondary Region when the primary fails.
- B
Configure a Multi-AZ deployment for the RDS database in the primary Region.
Why wrong: Multi-AZ is for high availability within a Region, not for cross-Region DR.
- C
Deploy the application on Amazon Aurora Global Database.
Why wrong: Aurora is a different database engine, not RDS MySQL.
- D
Create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) of the EC2 instances and copy it to the secondary Region. Use an Auto Scaling group to launch instances from the AMI.
Copying AMIs to another Region allows recovery of EC2 instances.
- E
Create a cross-Region read replica of the RDS MySQL database in the secondary Region.
Cross-Region read replicas provide asynchronous replication with low RPO.
SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
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 disaster recovery solution for a critical application that runs on Amazon EC2 instances in a single AWS Region. The application uses an Amazon RDS for MySQL database. The recovery time objective (RTO) is 1 hour and the recovery point objective (RPO) is 15 minutes. Which combination of steps should the company take to meet these requirements? (Choose THREE.)
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 Amazon Route 53 health checks to monitor the primary application and configure DNS failover to the secondary Region.
Option A is correct because Route 53 health checks can monitor the primary application's endpoint, and DNS failover to a secondary Region enables automatic traffic redirection within minutes, aligning with the 1-hour RTO. This approach provides a simple, stateless failover mechanism without requiring complex routing changes.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
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 Amazon Route 53 health checks to monitor the primary application and configure DNS failover to the secondary Region.
Why this is correct
Route 53 health checks and failover route traffic to the secondary Region when the primary fails.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Configure a Multi-AZ deployment for the RDS database in the primary Region.
Why it's wrong here
Multi-AZ is for high availability within a Region, not for cross-Region DR.
- ✗
Deploy the application on Amazon Aurora Global Database.
Why it's wrong here
Aurora is a different database engine, not RDS MySQL.
- ✓
Create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) of the EC2 instances and copy it to the secondary Region. Use an Auto Scaling group to launch instances from the AMI.
Why this is correct
Copying AMIs to another Region allows recovery of EC2 instances.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✓
Create a cross-Region read replica of the RDS MySQL database in the secondary Region.
Why this is correct
Cross-Region read replicas provide asynchronous replication with low RPO.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Multi-AZ deployments (which provide high availability within a Region) with cross-Region disaster recovery, failing to recognize that Multi-AZ does not protect against a full Region outage.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Route 53 DNS failover uses health checks that evaluate the primary endpoint's status via HTTP/HTTPS or TCP; upon failure, it updates DNS records with a TTL as low as 60 seconds, enabling rapid failover. The cross-Region read replica for RDS MySQL maintains asynchronous replication with a typical lag of seconds to minutes, supporting the 15-minute RPO, and can be promoted to a standalone primary in the secondary Region. Copying an AMI to the secondary Region and using an Auto Scaling group ensures EC2 instances can be launched quickly, but the AMI must be updated regularly to reflect application changes, which is a manual or automated process.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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Design for New Solutions — study guide chapter
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SAP-C02 question test?
Design for New Solutions — This question tests Design for New Solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use Amazon Route 53 health checks to monitor the primary application and configure DNS failover to the secondary Region. — Option A is correct because Route 53 health checks can monitor the primary application's endpoint, and DNS failover to a secondary Region enables automatic traffic redirection within minutes, aligning with the 1-hour RTO. This approach provides a simple, stateless failover mechanism without requiring complex routing changes.
What should I do if I get this SAP-C02 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 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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