SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
A company runs a web application on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. Users report intermittent slowdowns. CloudWatch metrics show high CPU utilization on the instances. The company wants to improve performance with minimal architectural changes. What should a 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
✓
Configure an Auto Scaling group with a dynamic scaling policy based on CPU utilization.
Auto Scaling with a dynamic scaling policy based on CPU utilization automatically adds or removes EC2 instances in response to load, handling spikes without manual intervention. This is a minimal architectural change. Option A is wrong because ElastiCache offloads database queries, but the high CPU may be from compute-intensive operations, not database. Option C is wrong because vertical scaling (larger instances) has an upper limit and may require downtime during resizing. Option D is wrong because CloudFront caches static content at the edge, but it does not reduce CPU load from dynamic requests or compute processing on the instances.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use Amazon ElastiCache to offload database queries.
Why it's wrong here
ElastiCache reduces database load, but the issue is CPU, not database.
- ✓
Configure an Auto Scaling group with a dynamic scaling policy based on CPU utilization.
Why this is correct
Auto Scaling adds instances during high demand, distributing load and reducing CPU per instance.
- ✗
Replace the EC2 instances with a larger instance type.
Why it's wrong here
Vertical scaling has limits and may cause downtime.
- ✗
Enable Amazon CloudFront in front of the ALB to cache content.
Why it's wrong here
CloudFront caches static content but doesn't reduce CPU load from dynamic requests.
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