SAP-C02 Multi-AZ Deployment Practice Question
A company is designing a new application that will be hosted on AWS. The application must be highly available across multiple Availability Zones. Which of the following services provide built-in high availability across AZs? (Choose TWO.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates may mistakenly include Amazon S3 because it stores data redundantly across AZs. However, the question asks about services providing built-in high availability for application components, and S3's availability is a property of the storage service itself, not something that the application architecture needs to configure. The trap is confusing durability/availability of storage with the high availability features provided by services like RDS Multi-AZ and ELB.
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 RDS Multi-AZ
Amazon RDS Multi-AZ provides built-in high availability across Availability Zones by automatically provisioning a synchronous standby replica in a different AZ, with automatic failover. Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) is inherently highly available across AZs; it distributes traffic to healthy targets in multiple AZs and automatically fails over if an AZ becomes unavailable. While Amazon S3 also stores objects redundantly across multiple AZs, the question specifically asks for services that provide built-in HA across AZs in the context of application design, and the two most directly relevant services are RDS Multi-AZ and ELB. Amazon EBS volumes and EC2 instances are AZ-scoped and do not provide built-in cross-AZ HA.
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 RDS Multi-AZ
Why this is correct
Amazon RDS Multi-AZ provides built-in high availability by automatically provisioning and maintaining a synchronous standby replica in a different AZ, enabling automatic failover without manual intervention.
- ✗
Amazon EBS volumes
Why it's wrong here
Amazon EBS volumes are created in a specific AZ and cannot be accessed from other AZs, so they do not provide high availability across AZs.
- ✗
Amazon EC2 instances
Why it's wrong here
Amazon EC2 instances are launched in a specific AZ, so they are not inherently highly available across AZs unless combined with other services like Auto Scaling and ELB.
- ✓
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)
Why this is correct
Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) distributes traffic across multiple targets in different AZs, providing automatic failover and high availability for applications.
- ✗
Amazon S3
Why it's wrong here
Amazon S3 is a highly durable and available storage service that stores objects redundantly across multiple AZs, but it is not considered a service that provides built-in high availability across AZs for application components in the same way as RDS Multi-AZ or ELB. The question's context focuses on compute and database tier availability, not storage.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
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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.