SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is designing a new microservices architecture on AWS. Each microservice is deployed as a containerized application and must be able to scale independently. The company wants to minimize operational overhead for managing the containers and the underlying infrastructure. Which solution should the architect recommend?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse 'managed node groups' (EKS) with 'serverless' (Fargate), assuming that managed node groups eliminate all operational overhead, when in fact they still require you to manage the EC2 instances, just with some automation for provisioning and updates.
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 ECS with Fargate launch type
Amazon ECS with the Fargate launch type is the correct choice because it is a serverless compute engine for containers that eliminates the need to provision, configure, or manage the underlying EC2 instances. This directly meets the requirement to minimize operational overhead while allowing each microservice to scale independently, as Fargate automatically handles the infrastructure and scaling based on the task definitions.
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 EKS with managed node groups
Why it's wrong here
Managed node groups still leave you provisioning, patching and scaling EC2 nodes, so infrastructure management remains your responsibility. It is tempting when Kubernetes portability or custom controllers are needed, but the stem asks for minimal operational overhead, which Fargate removes by abstracting the nodes entirely.
- ✓
Amazon ECS with Fargate launch type
Why this is correct
Fargate removes EC2 instance provisioning and patching, letting each containerised microservice scale independently via ECS service autoscaling. This satisfies the minimal operational overhead constraint, unlike EC2 launch types where you manage the underlying cluster capacity yourself.
- ✗
Amazon ECS with EC2 launch type and Auto Scaling groups
Why it's wrong here
EC2 launch type requires you to manage clusters, instance patching and capacity through Auto Scaling groups, so operational overhead stays with the company. It is tempting when workloads need bespoke instance types or GPU capacity, but the stem's minimised-overhead requirement points to Fargate's serverless compute instead.
- ✗
Amazon Lightsail containers
Why it's wrong here
Lightsail containers lack the granular orchestration and native integration with AWS Fargate required to scale individual microservices independently within a complex architecture. This service is designed for low-cost, predictable pricing for simple web applications or small projects where fixed resource allocations suffice. It becomes the correct choice when developers require a simplified deployment model for standalone containers without the orchestration overhead of Amazon ECS or EKS.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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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.