SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
A company runs a microservices application on Amazon EKS. The application consists of multiple services that communicate over HTTP. The operations team wants to implement a service mesh to gain observability, traffic management, and security features without modifying application code. They also want to minimize operational overhead. Which solution should a solutions architect recommend?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that any service mesh requires significant operational effort, but AWS App Mesh is managed and minimizes overhead while providing the needed features.
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
✓
Deploy AWS App Mesh with Envoy sidecar proxies injected into each pod.
AWS App Mesh is a managed service mesh that provides consistent observability, traffic control, and security for microservices on EKS. It uses Envoy sidecar proxies injected into pods, requiring no application code changes. As a managed service, it reduces operational overhead compared to self-managed options like Istio. It supports features such as traffic routing, retries, and mutual TLS, directly addressing the requirements.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Deploy AWS App Mesh with Envoy sidecar proxies injected into each pod.
Why this is correct
AWS App Mesh is a managed service mesh that uses Envoy proxies to provide observability, traffic routing, and security without application code changes. It integrates with EKS and handles control plane management, reducing operational overhead. It supports features like circuit breaking, retries, and mutual TLS. This is the native AWS solution for service mesh on EKS, meeting all requirements.
- ✗
Configure an Application Load Balancer (ALB) with AWS WAF to manage traffic between services.
Why it's wrong here
An ALB with WAF provides load balancing and security at the edge, but it does not offer service-to-service traffic management, observability, or mutual TLS within the mesh. It also requires each service to be exposed via an ALB, which is not typical for internal microservice communication and adds overhead. This solution does not meet the requirement for a service mesh with observability and traffic management.
- ✗
Use AWS Cloud Map for service discovery and implement custom retry logic in each microservice.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Cloud Map provides service discovery but does not offer traffic management, observability, or security features like a service mesh. Implementing custom retry logic requires modifying application code, which is disallowed. This approach also increases operational overhead and does not provide the comprehensive features of a service mesh. It fails to meet the requirement for observability and security without code changes.
- ✗
Install and configure Istio on the EKS cluster using Helm charts.
Why it's wrong here
Istio is a powerful open-source service mesh, but it requires significant operational effort to install, configure, and maintain, including managing the control plane, upgrades, and certificates. While it provides similar features, it does not minimize operational overhead as effectively as a managed service like AWS App Mesh. The scenario explicitly asks to minimize operational overhead, making Istio less suitable.
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JA
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.