SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is migrating a legacy on-premises application to AWS. The application uses a shared file system that must be accessible from multiple Linux-based Amazon EC2 instances simultaneously. The application requires a POSIX-compliant file system with high throughput and low latency. The company wants a fully managed, scalable solution that can grow to petabytes. What should a solutions architect recommend?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that Amazon S3 mounted via s3fs is a suitable replacement for a POSIX file system, when it is not POSIX-compliant and has performance drawbacks.
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
✓
Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS)
Amazon EFS is a fully managed, elastic file system that supports the POSIX interface and can be mounted on multiple Linux EC2 instances concurrently. It scales automatically to petabytes and offers high throughput and low latency. It requires no infrastructure management, making it the ideal choice for a shared file system for Linux workloads.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon FSx for Lustre
Why it's wrong here
FSx for Lustre is a high-performance file system for compute-intensive workloads like HPC and machine learning. It is POSIX-compliant and can scale to petabytes, but it is not fully managed in the same way as other services; you manage the file system and it is often used as a scratch space. It may be overkill and not the best fit for a general-purpose shared file system.
- ✗
Amazon S3 with s3fs-fuse mounted on each EC2 instance
Why it's wrong here
S3 is an object store, not a file system. Using s3fs-fuse to mount it as a file system is not POSIX-compliant and has performance limitations. It does not provide low latency or high throughput for file operations, and it is not a fully managed file system solution. This would require additional management and may not meet the performance requirements.
- ✗
Amazon FSx for Windows File Server
Why it's wrong here
FSx for Windows File Server is designed for Windows workloads and uses the SMB protocol. It is not POSIX-compliant for Linux. While it can be mounted on Linux using SMB, it does not provide native POSIX semantics. This does not meet the requirement for a POSIX-compliant file system for Linux instances.
- ✓
Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS)
Why this is correct
Amazon EFS is a fully managed, scalable, POSIX-compliant file system for Linux workloads. It supports concurrent access from multiple EC2 instances and scales automatically to petabytes. It provides high throughput and low latency with the appropriate performance mode. This meets all the requirements without managing infrastructure.
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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.