SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is designing a multi-tier web application on AWS. The application must be highly available and scale automatically based on traffic. The web tier runs on Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. The application tier also uses EC2 instances. Which solution meets these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?
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 Auto Scaling groups for both web and application tiers, and route traffic through an Application Load Balancer.
Using Auto Scaling groups for both web and application tiers with an Application Load Balancer provides automatic scaling and high availability with minimal operational overhead. Auto Scaling groups handle instance health and scaling based on demand, while the ALB distributes HTTP traffic. Option A is incorrect because ECS with Fargate introduces container management complexity, increasing operational overhead compared to EC2 Auto Scaling groups. Option B is incorrect because AWS Global Accelerator does not provide automatic scaling for instances; it only improves traffic routing and latency. Option C is incorrect because a Network Load Balancer is designed for TCP/UDP traffic and does not natively support HTTP-layer features needed for a web application, and it does not integrate with Auto Scaling for automatic scaling as seamlessly as an ALB.
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 ECS with Fargate for both tiers, with an Application Load Balancer.
Why it's wrong here
ECS/Fargate adds operational overhead for container management, not least overhead.
- ✗
Use AWS Global Accelerator with a single Auto Scaling group for both tiers.
Why it's wrong here
Global Accelerator improves performance but doesn't scale instances; single ASG mixes tiers.
- ✗
Use Network Load Balancer with Auto Scaling groups for both tiers.
Why it's wrong here
NLB is for TCP/UDP, not ideal for HTTP; still requires ASG.
- ✓
Use Auto Scaling groups for both web and application tiers, and route traffic through an Application Load Balancer.
Why this is correct
Auto Scaling groups provide automatic scaling and health checks, ALB distributes traffic, low overhead.
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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.