SAP-C02 Practice Question: Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization
A company is migrating a stateful web application to AWS. The application currently runs on a single on-premises server and uses local storage for session data. The company wants to make the application highly available and scalable. What should the solutions architect do?
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 session data to Amazon ElastiCache or DynamoDB, then use an Auto Scaling group behind an ALB
Moving session state to ElastiCache or DynamoDB makes the application stateless, enabling Auto Scaling. Sticky sessions on an ALB are a workaround but do not provide full statelessness. Using a larger instance does not provide high availability. Multi-AZ RDS for session data is not ideal for high-frequency 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 data in a Multi-AZ Amazon RDS database and use Route 53 with health checks
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: RDS is not optimal for session state; ElastiCache is better.
- ✗
Use an Application Load Balancer with sticky sessions and an Auto Scaling group
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Sticky sessions can cause uneven load and are not truly stateless.
- ✗
Use a larger EC2 instance to handle all traffic and take regular snapshots
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Single instance is a single point of failure.
- ✓
Migrate session data to Amazon ElastiCache or DynamoDB, then use an Auto Scaling group behind an ALB
Why this is correct
Correct: Makes the web tier stateless, allowing scaling and high availability.
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 1,660 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 →
Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on SAP-C02
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company is migrating a web application to AWS. The application currently runs on a single server and uses a MySQL database. The company wants to ensure high availability and scalability. The web application is stateless. Which TWO actions should the company take to achieve these goals? (Choose TWO.)
medium- ✓ A.Deploy the web application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group across multiple Availability Zones, with an Application Load Balancer
- B.Use a single Amazon RDS for MySQL DB instance
- ✓ C.Use Multi-AZ Amazon RDS for MySQL
- D.Use Amazon ElastiCache to cache database queries
- E.Use a large EC2 instance for the web application with Elastic IP
Why A: To achieve high availability and scalability for the web application, the company should deploy the web tier across multiple Availability Zones using an Auto Scaling group with an Application Load Balancer (Option A), which distributes traffic and automatically scales instances. For the MySQL database, using Multi-AZ Amazon RDS (Option C) provides automatic failover and high availability. Option B (single RDS instance) is a single point of failure. Option D (ElastiCache) is for caching, not for high availability or scaling. Option E (large EC2 instance with Elastic IP) does not provide scalability or availability.
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.