SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
A company runs a critical application on Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The application experiences intermittent latency spikes. The operations team has enabled detailed CloudWatch metrics and logs, but cannot identify the root cause. What is the MOST effective way to troubleshoot the latency issue?
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 AWS X-Ray to trace requests from the ALB to the application and downstream services.
AWS X-Ray provides end-to-end tracing of requests from the ALB to the EC2 instances and downstream services, allowing the team to identify the specific component causing latency spikes. Option A is wrong because detailed ALB metrics only provide aggregate data, not per-request traces. Option B is wrong because migrating to Lambda would not necessarily resolve latency and adds significant architectural change. Option C is wrong because a Network Load Balancer operates at Layer 4 and does not provide application-level tracing or visibility. Option E is wrong because while adding instances might reduce load, it does not help identify the root cause of intermittent latency spikes.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable detailed ALB metrics and create a CloudWatch dashboard.
Why it's wrong here
Metrics alone may not reveal the root cause; tracing is needed.
- ✗
Migrate the application to AWS Lambda to eliminate EC2 overhead.
Why it's wrong here
Lambda may not be suitable for all applications and does not automatically solve latency issues.
- ✗
Replace the ALB with a Network Load Balancer (NLB) for lower latency.
Why it's wrong here
NLB does not provide application-layer visibility.
- ✓
Use AWS X-Ray to trace requests from the ALB to the application and downstream services.
Why this is correct
X-Ray provides end-to-end tracing to pinpoint latency sources.
- ✗
Add more EC2 instances behind the ALB to distribute the load.
Why it's wrong here
Scaling out does not identify the root cause of latency.
Visual reference
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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 →
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.