SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
A company uses AWS CloudFormation to deploy infrastructure. A stack update fails with a resource update failure. The team wants to investigate the specific error without rolling back the stack. What is the BEST approach?
⚠ Common exam trap
SAP-C02 often tests the difference between change sets (preview only) and disable-rollback (execute and preserve failure state) — candidates pick change sets thinking they show errors, but they do not execute the update.
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
✓
Rerun the stack update with the --disable-rollback flag and then describe the stack events.
Using the --disable-rollback flag on the update-stack command prevents CloudFormation from rolling back when a resource update fails, leaving the stack in UPDATE_FAILED state so you can inspect the exact error via describe-stack-events. This is the standard way to debug a failed update without losing the partially applied changes.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Rerun the stack update with the --disable-rollback flag and then describe the stack events.
Why this is correct
The --disable-rollback flag preserves the failed stack state so the team can inspect the exact resource error via describe-stack-events, rather than losing it to an automatic rollback. This satisfies the requirement to investigate the specific failure without reverting the stack.
- ✗
Delete the stack and review the CloudFormation logs.
Why it's wrong here
Deleting the stack destroys the resources and their event history, removing the error detail the team needs. It is tempting as a reset, and it would be correct when a stack is unrecoverable and must be rebuilt from scratch rather than diagnosed.
- ✗
Create a change set to preview the updates.
Why it's wrong here
A change set previews proposed changes before execution; it cannot reveal why an already-failed update errored. It is tempting because it is the standard pre-deployment review tool, and it would be correct for validating intended modifications before committing them to the stack.
- ✗
Use the AWS CLI describe-stack-resources command to see the status of each resource.
Why it's wrong here
Describe-stack-resources returns only resource statuses and timestamps, not the underlying failure reason. It is tempting because it inspects the stack directly, and it would be correct for confirming which resources updated successfully during a partial deployment.
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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.