SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is designing a web application that must support millions of concurrent users. The application uses a RESTful API frontend and a relational database backend. Which TWO strategies should be implemented to improve scalability?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse queuing (SQS) with database scalability, but SQS does not increase database throughput—it only buffers requests, which can lead to backpressure and eventual inconsistency if not carefully designed.
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
✓
Implement read replicas for the database.
Read replicas (Option C) offload read traffic from the primary database instance, allowing the relational database to handle a higher volume of concurrent read queries without degrading write performance. This directly improves scalability for read-heavy workloads common in web applications.
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 Amazon SQS to queue database write requests.
Why it's wrong here
SQS decouples but does not directly improve database scalability.
- ✗
Use sticky sessions (session affinity) on the load balancer.
Why it's wrong here
Sticky sessions can reduce scalability by preventing even load distribution.
- ✓
Implement read replicas for the database.
Why this is correct
Read replicas offload read traffic from the primary database.
- ✓
Implement a caching layer such as ElastiCache.
Why this is correct
Caching reduces database load and improves response times.
- ✗
Use a single large EC2 instance for the database.
Why it's wrong here
Vertical scaling has limits; horizontal scaling is better.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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