SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is designing a microservices architecture using Amazon ECS with Fargate. Each microservice needs to communicate with others via REST APIs. The company wants to ensure that communication is encrypted in transit and that services can discover each other using DNS names. Which set of actions should the company take?
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
✓
Enable ECS Service Connect on each service, and use the service discovery names provided by Service Connect.
ECS Service Connect provides built-in DNS-based service discovery and automatic encryption via TLS for inter-service communication. Option B uses AWS Cloud Map for service discovery but does not enforce encryption in transit. Option C uses a Network Load Balancer (NLB) in front of each service, which adds unnecessary complexity and cost without addressing service discovery. Option D uses an Application Load Balancer (ALB) in front of each service, which is also overly complex and costly for simple inter-service communication.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Enable ECS Service Connect on each service, and use the service discovery names provided by Service Connect.
Why this is correct
Correct. ECS Service Connect provides DNS-based service discovery and automatic encryption via TLS, meeting both requirements.
- ✗
Create a namespace in AWS Cloud Map, register each service, and configure service-to-service communication using the namespace.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. AWS Cloud Map provides service discovery but does not enforce encryption in transit, so it does not fully meet the encryption requirement.
- ✗
Place a Network Load Balancer in front of each service and use the NLB DNS name for communication.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Using an NLB in front of each service adds complexity and cost, and does not provide DNS-based service discovery within the ECS environment as seamlessly as Service Connect.
- ✗
Place an Application Load Balancer in front of each service and use the ALB DNS name for communication.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Using an ALB similarly adds complexity and cost, and is not the most efficient way to achieve service discovery and encryption for microservices on ECS Fargate.
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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 microservices architecture using Amazon ECS with Fargate. The services need to communicate with each other. The company wants to minimize operational overhead and ensure that service discovery is automatically updated when services scale. Which service discovery option should be used?
hard- ✓ A.AWS Cloud Map
- B.Amazon ECS service connect
- C.Elastic Load Balancing with internal NLB
- D.Amazon Route 53 private hosted zones with health checks
Why A: AWS Cloud Map provides service discovery that automatically updates with service scaling.
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.