SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is designing a new solution to host a static website with global audience. The website content includes HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and images. The company wants to minimize latency for users worldwide and reduce the load on the origin server. The origin server is an Amazon S3 bucket configured for static website hosting. Which solution should be used to achieve these goals?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse content delivery (CloudFront) with network acceleration (Global Accelerator) or upload acceleration (S3 Transfer Acceleration), leading candidates to pick options that improve network routing but do not cache or serve static content at edge locations.
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
✓
Use Amazon CloudFront as a content delivery network (CDN) in front of the S3 bucket.
Amazon CloudFront is a global content delivery network (CDN) that caches static content (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, images) at edge locations worldwide, significantly reducing latency for a global audience. By placing CloudFront in front of an S3 bucket configured for static website hosting, it offloads requests from the origin server, reducing load and improving performance. CloudFront also supports features like custom SSL, geo-restriction, and origin shield to further optimize delivery.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use AWS Global Accelerator to route traffic to the S3 bucket.
Why it's wrong here
Global Accelerator proxies TCP and UDP traffic to regional endpoints; it does not cache S3 objects at edge locations, so every request still reaches the origin bucket. It is tempting for latency-sensitive dynamic workloads, but static content requires a CDN such as CloudFront to cache HTML, CSS, JavaScript and images globally.
- ✗
Use AWS Lambda@Edge to serve content from edge locations.
Why it's wrong here
Lambda@Edge runs compute at edge locations but does not cache objects; every viewer request still invokes a function and typically fetches from the S3 origin, so origin load and repeat latency remain. It suits dynamic header manipulation or request rewriting, not serving static assets.
- ✓
Use Amazon CloudFront as a content delivery network (CDN) in front of the S3 bucket.
Why this is correct
CloudFront caches the S3-hosted HTML, CSS, JavaScript and images at global edge locations, so users are served from the nearest point of presence rather than the origin. This directly satisfies both stated constraints: minimising worldwide latency and reducing load on the S3 origin, since repeat requests no longer reach the bucket.
- ✗
Enable S3 Transfer Acceleration on the bucket.
Why it's wrong here
S3 Transfer Acceleration speeds uploads into a bucket via AWS edge networks; it does not cache content or serve readers. Static website delivery to a global audience requires a CDN caching objects at edge locations, which is what CloudFront provides.
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 |
Go deeper
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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.