SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is designing a multi-tier web application on AWS. The application requires high availability across multiple Availability Zones. Which AWS service should be used to distribute incoming traffic across multiple EC2 instances in different Availability Zones?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse DNS-based routing (Route 53) with actual load balancing, but Route 53 only provides DNS resolution and does not actively distribute traffic across instances or perform health checks at the application layer.
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
✓
Application Load Balancer
The Application Load Balancer (ALB) operates at Layer 7 of the OSI model and is designed to distribute incoming HTTP/HTTPS traffic across multiple targets, such as EC2 instances, in different Availability Zones. By registering instances in multiple AZs and enabling cross-zone load balancing, the ALB provides high availability and fault tolerance for the multi-tier web application.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS Global Accelerator
Why it's wrong here
Global Accelerator improves application performance by directing traffic over the AWS global network, but it is not specifically designed for distributing traffic across multiple AZs within a region.
- ✓
Application Load Balancer
Why this is correct
An Application Load Balancer automatically distributes incoming traffic across multiple targets, such as EC2 instances, in multiple Availability Zones, ensuring high availability.
- ✗
AWS Direct Connect
Why it's wrong here
Direct Connect establishes a dedicated network connection from on-premises to AWS, not for distributing traffic across AZs.
- ✗
Amazon Route 53
Why it's wrong here
Route 53 is a DNS service that can route traffic to endpoints, but it does not distribute traffic across multiple AZs with health checks and load balancing.
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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.