SAP-C02 Application Load Balancer Practice Question
A company is migrating a web application to AWS. The application consists of a stateless web tier, a stateful application tier, and a MySQL database. The company wants to use AWS managed services to improve scalability and reduce operational overhead. Which THREE services should the company use? (Choose THREE.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates may mistakenly choose EC2 Auto Scaling for the stateless web tier, but the question asks for managed services to improve scalability and reduce operational overhead for the application tier and database, not just the web tier. ElastiCache is the correct managed service for the stateful tier.
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
✓
Application Load Balancer
The correct choices are C, D, and E. For the stateless web tier, an Application Load Balancer (ALB) distributes traffic and integrates with Auto Scaling for scalability, but EC2 Auto Scaling itself is not a managed service for the database or stateful tier. The stateful application tier requires a managed in-memory caching service; Amazon ElastiCache for Redis is ideal for session state storage. The MySQL database should be migrated to Amazon RDS for MySQL, a managed relational database service that reduces operational overhead. Option A (EC2 Auto Scaling) is incorrect because it is an infrastructure-level scaling service, not a managed service for the database or stateful tier. Option B (S3) is incorrect because it is object storage, not suitable for stateful application data or session state.
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 EC2 Auto Scaling
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is used to automatically adjust the number of EC2 instances, but it is not a managed service for the stateful application tier or database. It does not directly handle session state or reduce operational overhead for the database.
- ✗
Amazon S3
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Amazon S3 is object storage, not suitable for low-latency session state storage or as a managed service for the stateful application tier. It is also not a database service.
- ✓
Application Load Balancer
Why this is correct
Correct. Application Load Balancer is a managed service that distributes traffic to the web tier, improving scalability and availability.
- ✓
Amazon ElastiCache for Redis
Why this is correct
Correct. Amazon ElastiCache for Redis is a managed in-memory cache that can store session state, reducing load on the database and improving performance.
- ✓
Amazon RDS for MySQL
Why this is correct
Correct. Amazon RDS for MySQL is a managed database service that reduces operational overhead for managing the MySQL database.
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
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