SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is designing a new microservices architecture on AWS. They need to ensure that services can communicate asynchronously without tight coupling. Which AWS service should they use for message brokering?
⚠ Common exam trap
SAP-C02 often tests the distinction between SQS (pull-based queuing for decoupling) and SNS (push-based pub/sub for fanout), so candidates must recognize that asynchronous, decoupled microservice communication typically requires a queue, not a notification service.
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 Simple Queue Service (SQS)
Amazon SQS is a fully managed message queuing service that enables asynchronous, decoupled communication between microservices. Producers send messages to a queue, and consumers poll and process them independently, so services don't need to know about each other or wait for responses. This directly satisfies the requirement for asynchronous communication without tight coupling.
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 Simple Queue Service (SQS)
Why this is correct
SQS provides fully managed queues where producers send messages and consumers poll independently, decoupling services so neither waits on the other. This asynchronous, pull-based brokering satisfies the no-tight-coupling requirement, with standard queues offering at-least-once delivery and near-unlimited throughput.
- ✗
Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)
Why it's wrong here
SNS pushes notifications to subscribed endpoints but does not hold messages in a queue for consumers to poll, so a service that is unavailable loses the message. It is tempting because it decouples publishers from subscribers, yet durable asynchronous brokering requires an SQS queue behind the topic.
- ✗
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams
Why it's wrong here
Kinesis Data Streams provides ordered, replayable stream consumption for analytics and real-time processing, not brokered point-to-point delivery with per-message acknowledgement and dead-letter handling. Amazon SQS fits asynchronous microservice decoupling; Kinesis suits high-throughput event streaming into consumers.
- ✗
AWS Step Functions
Why it's wrong here
Step Functions orchestrates workflows as state machines, invoking and sequencing tasks synchronously within a defined flow, which couples services to that orchestration. It is tempting for coordinating microservices, but it is not a message broker; SQS queues provide the required asynchronous decoupling.
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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.