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 multi-region active-active application with a relational database. The application requires strong consistency and read-after-write consistency globally. Which AWS database service should the company choose?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Amazon Aurora Global Database
Amazon Aurora Global Database is designed for multi-region active-active applications requiring strong consistency and read-after-write consistency. It uses a primary region for writes and replicates data to up to five secondary regions with typical latency under one second, while still providing global read-after-write consistency through its storage-based replication layer. This makes it the only AWS relational database service that meets the stated requirements for a multi-region active-active setup with strong consistency.
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.
✓
Amazon Aurora Global Database
Why this is correct
Aurora Global Database supports active-active multi-region with low-latency replication and strong consistency.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Amazon RDS for MySQL with Multi-AZ
Why it's wrong here
Multi-AZ is single-region and does not provide multi-region active-active capability.
✗
Amazon DynamoDB Global Tables
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB Global Tables provide eventual consistency, not strong read-after-write consistency.
✗
Amazon ElastiCache for Memcached
Why it's wrong here
ElastiCache is a caching layer, not a relational database.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse DynamoDB Global Tables (NoSQL, eventual consistency) with a relational database that provides strong consistency, or they assume Multi-AZ RDS can be extended to multi-region active-active, when in fact it is single-region only.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Aurora Global Database achieves strong consistency by using a single primary writer instance in one region and replicating data at the storage layer using a dedicated, low-latency network connection. The storage layer uses a quorum-based write protocol (6 copies across 3 Availability Zones) and asynchronous replication to secondary regions, but the application can enforce read-after-write consistency by using the cluster endpoint or by reading from the primary region until replication confirms the write. In real-world scenarios, this is critical for applications like global financial trading platforms where a user must immediately see their own transaction after submitting it, even when accessing from a different region.
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.
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: Amazon Aurora Global Database — Amazon Aurora Global Database is designed for multi-region active-active applications requiring strong consistency and read-after-write consistency. It uses a primary region for writes and replicates data to up to five secondary regions with typical latency under one second, while still providing global read-after-write consistency through its storage-based replication layer. This makes it the only AWS relational database service that meets the stated requirements for a multi-region active-active setup with strong consistency.
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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Question Discussion
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