SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is designing a disaster recovery solution for a web application hosted on AWS. The primary site is in us-east-1 and the DR site is in us-west-2. The application uses an Amazon RDS for MySQL database. They need to recover the database with a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 5 seconds and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 1 hour. Which solution meets these requirements?
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 RDS Cross-Region Read Replica and promote it.
RDS Cross-Region Read Replicas for MySQL provide asynchronous replication with an RPO of typically seconds, and promoting the replica to a standalone instance can be done quickly (minutes), meeting the RTO of 1 hour. Option A is incorrect because Multi-AZ is single region. Option B is incorrect because while DMS can achieve low RPO, it is typically used for migrations and ongoing replication setups may have higher operational complexity and RTO. Option D is incorrect because Amazon Aurora Global Database is not available for RDS MySQL; it is for Aurora databases.
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 RDS Multi-AZ in us-east-1 and failover to DR site.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. RDS Multi-AZ provides high availability within a single region, not cross-region disaster recovery. It cannot meet the RPO/RTO requirements for cross-region failover.
- ✗
Use AWS DMS with ongoing replication to an RDS instance in us-west-2.
Why it's wrong here
AWS DMS with ongoing replication is primarily designed for heterogeneous database migrations or continuous data synchronisation, not for achieving ultra-low RPOs like 5 seconds with native RDS. Its change data capture (CDC) and replication process can introduce latency, making it challenging to consistently meet such a stringent RPO requirement, especially across regions. While tempting due to its "ongoing replication" capability, a native RDS cross-Region read replica or snapshot strategy is the precise mechanism for maintaining sub-minute RPOs for RDS databases.
- ✓
Use RDS Cross-Region Read Replica and promote it.
Why this is correct
Correct. RDS Cross-Region Read Replicas for MySQL replicate data with an RPO of seconds. Promoting the replica is a fast operation, typically taking minutes, so RTO of 1 hour is easily satisfied.
- ✗
Use Amazon Aurora Global Database.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Amazon Aurora Global Database is designed for Aurora databases, not for RDS MySQL. It is not compatible with the specified database type.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This SAP-C02 question is part of Courseiva's 1,660-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. 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 is designing a new application on AWS that requires a relational database with read replicas across multiple AWS Regions. The database must have automated failover and a recovery point objective (RPO) of less than 5 seconds. Which database solution should the company choose?
medium- ✓ A.Amazon Aurora Global Database
- B.Amazon RDS for MySQL with Multi-AZ and cross-Region read replicas
- C.Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL with cross-Region read replicas and Multi-AZ
- D.Amazon DynamoDB Global Tables
Why A: Amazon Aurora Global Database is the correct choice because it is designed for cross-Region replication with a typical RPO of less than 1 second and automated failover from the primary Region to a secondary Region in under 1 minute. This meets the requirement for a relational database with read replicas across multiple Regions and an RPO of less than 5 seconds, as Aurora Global Database uses a dedicated, fast replication channel that minimizes lag.
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.