SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is designing a new application that will be deployed on AWS. The application requires a relational database that must be highly available, automatically scalable, and support read-heavy workloads. The company wants to minimize operational overhead and ensure that the database can fail over to another Availability Zone automatically. Which solution meets these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that RDS Multi-AZ includes automatic read replica scaling; it does not, and read replicas must be managed manually.
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
✓
Amazon Aurora with a Multi-AZ deployment and Auto Scaling for read replicas
Amazon Aurora with Multi-AZ and Auto Scaling for read replicas provides a highly available, relational database that automatically scales read capacity. It minimizes operational overhead by handling failover and scaling automatically. Other options either lack automatic scaling, are not relational, or are not designed for transactional workloads.
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 with a Multi-AZ deployment and Auto Scaling for read replicas
Why this is correct
Amazon Aurora is a MySQL- and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database that provides high availability with a Multi-AZ deployment. It automatically fails over to a read replica in another AZ if the primary fails. Aurora Auto Scaling can automatically add or remove read replicas based on load, making it ideal for read-heavy workloads with minimal operational overhead.
- ✗
Amazon DynamoDB with global tables and on-demand capacity
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB is a NoSQL database and does not support relational workloads or complex joins. While it is highly available and scalable, it is not suitable for applications requiring a relational database. The requirement explicitly states a relational database, so DynamoDB does not meet the needs.
- ✗
Amazon Redshift with concurrency scaling and Multi-AZ
Why it's wrong here
Amazon Redshift is a data warehousing service optimized for analytical queries, not transactional relational workloads. It does not support Multi-AZ in the same way as RDS or Aurora; concurrency scaling adds transient capacity for read queries but is not designed for high-availability OLTP. It is not suitable for this application.
- ✗
Amazon RDS for MySQL with Multi-AZ and a read replica in a different region
Why it's wrong here
RDS Multi-AZ provides high availability with automatic failover, but it does not automatically scale read replicas. A cross-region read replica adds latency and complexity, and is not automatically scaled. This solution requires manual intervention to add read replicas, increasing operational overhead. It does not meet the automatic scaling requirement.
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
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.