SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is designing a new web application that will be deployed on Amazon ECS with Fargate. The application must scale based on the number of requests per container. The company wants to use a service that can automatically adjust the number of tasks based on a custom metric. Which solution should the company use?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse step scaling with target tracking, or incorrectly assume that a scaling plan from the AWS Auto Scaling console is required for ECS services, when in fact ECS Service Auto Scaling with target tracking is the direct and recommended solution for custom metrics.
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
✓
Configure an ECS Service Auto Scaling policy with a target tracking scaling policy based on a custom CloudWatch metric.
ECS Service Auto Scaling with a target tracking scaling policy can use a custom CloudWatch metric (e.g., requests per container) to automatically adjust the number of Fargate tasks. This approach directly matches the requirement to scale based on a custom metric, as target tracking maintains the metric at a specified target value by adding or removing tasks.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Configure an ECS Service Auto Scaling policy with a target tracking scaling policy based on a custom CloudWatch metric.
Why this is correct
ECS Service Auto Scaling supports target tracking for custom metrics.
- ✗
Configure Amazon DynamoDB auto scaling to adjust the read capacity based on the request count.
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB auto scaling is for database throughput, not ECS tasks.
- ✗
Use Application Auto Scaling to register the ECS service and create a step scaling policy.
Why it's wrong here
While Application Auto Scaling can be used, the more direct solution is ECS Service Auto Scaling with target tracking.
- ✗
Use the AWS Auto Scaling console to create a scaling plan that includes the ECS service.
Why it's wrong here
The AWS Auto Scaling console is a unified interface, but the underlying mechanism is still ECS Service Auto Scaling.
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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.