SAP-C02 Practice Question: Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization
A company is migrating a high-traffic web application from on-premises to AWS. The application uses a MySQL database and stores session state on the web servers. The company wants to ensure that the application can scale horizontally and that users are not logged out when new web servers are added. Which migration strategy should be used for the session state?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is thinking that sticky sessions solve the scaling issue, but they actually hinder horizontal scaling and do not prevent session loss if a server fails.
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
✓
Migrate the session state to Amazon ElastiCache for Redis and configure the application to use it as a session store.
Migrating session state to Amazon ElastiCache for Redis is the best strategy because it externalizes session data, allowing any web server to handle requests for any user. This enables horizontal scaling and ensures that user sessions are not lost when new servers are added. Other options either do not scale well or introduce latency and complexity.
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 sticky sessions on the Application Load Balancer to ensure that each user is directed to the same web server.
Why it's wrong here
Sticky sessions can help maintain session affinity, but they do not support horizontal scaling well because they tie a user to a specific server. If that server fails or is replaced, the session is lost. Sticky sessions also complicate scaling because new servers may not receive traffic evenly. This approach does not meet the requirement to avoid user logouts when new servers are added.
- ✓
Migrate the session state to Amazon ElastiCache for Redis and configure the application to use it as a session store.
Why this is correct
Amazon ElastiCache for Redis provides a highly available, in-memory data store that can be used to externalize session state. By storing sessions in ElastiCache, any web server can access the session data, enabling horizontal scaling without losing user sessions. This is a common pattern for modernizing applications to be stateless and scalable.
- ✗
Store session state in an Amazon RDS for MySQL database with a multi-AZ deployment.
Why it's wrong here
While RDS is highly available, using it for session state can introduce latency and increase database load, especially for high-traffic applications. It is not designed for high-throughput, low-latency session storage. This approach would not scale as efficiently as an in-memory store and could become a bottleneck.
- ✗
Use Amazon S3 to store session state as objects and have the application retrieve them on each request.
Why it's wrong here
Amazon S3 is object storage with higher latency compared to in-memory caches. Using S3 for session state would add significant latency to every request and is not suitable for high-traffic, low-latency session management. It also lacks the atomic operations needed for session updates, leading to potential consistency issues.
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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.