SAP-C02 Practice Question: Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization
A company is migrating a legacy e-commerce application to AWS. The application includes a web tier, an application tier, and a MySQL database. The company wants to improve scalability and reduce operational overhead. The architect plans to use Amazon RDS for MySQL and refactor the application to use Auto Scaling for the web and application tiers. However, the application currently stores session state locally on the web servers. What should the architect do to address session state management in the new architecture?
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 ElastiCache for Redis to store session state
Using ElastiCache for Redis provides a centralized, scalable session store that works with Auto Scaling. Using sticky sessions (ELB session stickiness) is a workaround but less scalable and not recommended for Auto Scaling. Storing sessions in RDS would add database load. Storing in S3 is not suitable for low-latency session access.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Store session state in Amazon S3
Why it's wrong here
S3 offers no session locking, expiry or low-latency key-value semantics, so concurrent requests cannot reliably share state. S3 is tempting as durable object storage for static assets and backups, but session state needs a shared store such as ElastiCache or DynamoDB.
- ✗
Store session state in Amazon RDS for MySQL
Why it's wrong here
RDS for MySQL is a relational store; writing session rows per request adds connection overhead and contention against the transactional e-commerce database. RDS suits durable relational data, whereas session state belongs in a purpose-built low-latency key-value store such as ElastiCache or DynamoDB.
- ✗
Configure an Application Load Balancer with sticky sessions
Why it's wrong here
Sticky sessions bind each user to one instance, so that instance's local state is lost when Auto Scaling terminates it, and load becomes uneven. Stickiness is chosen for legacy apps that cannot externalise state, not for a refactor intended to make the web tier stateless.
- ✓
Use Amazon ElastiCache for Redis to store session state
Why this is correct
ElastiCache for Redis externalises session state into a shared, low-latency store, so any Auto Scaling web instance can read the same session regardless of which server handled the prior request. It satisfies the stem's constraint that locally stored sessions break horizontal scaling behind a load balancer.
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
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 984 original SAP-C02 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
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.