SAP-C02 AWS Cloud Map Practice Question
A company is designing a new microservices architecture on Amazon ECS with Fargate. The company wants to ensure that services can discover each other using DNS names. Which TWO components are required?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often assume an ALB is needed for service discovery due to its DNS name, but Cloud Map and Route 53 alone provide DNS-based discovery without a load balancer.
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
✓
AWS Cloud Map
Only AWS Cloud Map (A) and Amazon Route 53 (D) are required for DNS-based service discovery. AWS Cloud Map allows services to register with DNS names and health checks, while Route 53 can be configured with private hosted zones to resolve those DNS names within the VPC. An Application Load Balancer (E) is not required because service discovery can be achieved solely through Cloud Map and Route 53 without any load balancer. ECS Service Connect (C) and Network Load Balancer (B) are also not required for basic DNS-based service discovery.
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 Cloud Map
Why this is correct
AWS Cloud Map is a managed service for service discovery, allowing services to register with DNS names and health checks.
- ✗
Network Load Balancer (NLB)
Why it's wrong here
Network Load Balancer is not required for DNS-based service discovery; it handles TCP/UDP traffic.
- ✗
Amazon ECS Service Connect
Why it's wrong here
Amazon ECS Service Connect is an optional feature that simplifies service discovery but is not required for DNS-based discovery.
- ✓
Amazon Route 53
Why this is correct
Amazon Route 53 can be configured with private hosted zones to resolve custom DNS names for services.
- ✗
Application Load Balancer (ALB)
Why it's wrong here
Application Load Balancer provides a DNS name but is not required; service discovery can be achieved with Cloud Map and Route 53 alone.
Visual reference
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 1,660 original SAP-C02 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.