SAP-C02 Practice Question: Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization
A company is migrating a stateful application to AWS. The application uses sticky sessions (session affinity) on the current on-premises load balancer. The company wants to use an Application Load Balancer (ALB) in AWS. Which feature should be enabled?
⚠ Common exam trap
SAP-C02 often tests whether candidates conflate session affinity (stickiness) with availability features like health checks, cross-zone balancing, or connection draining, all of which appear in the same ALB feature list.
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
✓
Sticky sessions (session affinity) using a cookie generated by the load balancer.
ALB supports sticky sessions via a load balancer-generated cookie (AWSALB) that binds a client to a specific target for the duration of the stickiness policy. Enabling stickiness on the target group preserves session state for stateful applications migrated from on-premises load balancers that used session affinity. This is the direct ALB feature that replicates the on-premises behavior.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Connection draining (deregistration delay).
Why it's wrong here
Deregistration delay only keeps existing connections alive while a target is removed from service; it does not route subsequent requests from the same client to the same target. It is tempting because it concerns connection handling, and it would be correct when draining in-flight requests during target deregistration or deployment.
- ✓
Sticky sessions (session affinity) using a cookie generated by the load balancer.
Why this is correct
An Application Load Balancer supports sticky sessions by issuing its own cookie, AWSALB, which pins each client to the same target for the session's duration. This preserves the session affinity the on-premises load balancer provided for the stateful application.
- ✗
Health checks to ensure only healthy instances receive traffic.
Why it's wrong here
Health checks only determine which targets receive traffic; they do not maintain affinity between a client and a particular target. It is tempting because healthy-target routing is essential for availability, and it would be correct when the requirement is removing failed targets rather than preserving session state.
- ✗
Cross-zone load balancing.
Why it's wrong here
Cross-zone load balancing only controls how traffic is distributed across Availability Zone targets; it does not bind a client to a specific target. It is tempting because it affects traffic distribution, and it would be correct when targets in multiple Availability Zones need even load sharing rather than session affinity.
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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
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