SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
A company uses AWS CodePipeline for CI/CD. The deployment stage uses AWS CodeDeploy to deploy to EC2 instances. The team wants to automatically test the application after deployment and roll back if tests fail. Which approach should the team use?
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 a CloudWatch alarm to monitor test results and trigger a rollback.
It allows automatic testing and rollback by integrating CloudWatch alarms. After deployment, a test stage can run tests and publish a custom metric to CloudWatch. If the metric breaches a threshold (indicating test failure), a CloudWatch alarm triggers a rollback action, such as an AWS Lambda function that calls the CodeDeploy API to roll back the deployment. This approach automates the entire process without manual intervention. Option A is incorrect because creating a separate pipeline introduces unnecessary complexity and cross-pipeline triggers are not straightforward for rollback. Option B is incorrect because manual approval steps require human interaction, which is not automatic. Option D is incorrect because CodeDeploy cannot automatically roll back based on a pipeline failure; CodeDeploy only rolls back on its own deployment failures, not failures in subsequent pipeline stages. The test stage is part of the pipeline, and if it fails, the pipeline fails, but CodeDeploy's rollback is not triggered by pipeline stage failures.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Create a separate CodePipeline for testing and use a cross-pipeline trigger to initiate rollback.
Why it's wrong here
Creating a separate CodePipeline for testing and using a cross-pipeline trigger to initiate rollback is overly complex and not recommended. It does not directly integrate testing into the same pipeline and rollback triggers are difficult to manage.
- ✗
Add a manual approval step after deployment to run tests manually.
Why it's wrong here
Adding a manual approval step requires human intervention to run tests, which is not automatic and defeats the purpose of automated testing and rollback.
- ✓
Use a CloudWatch alarm to monitor test results and trigger a rollback.
Why this is correct
This is correct. Using a CloudWatch alarm to monitor test results allows automatic rollback when tests fail. The test stage can publish metrics to CloudWatch, and if the alarm triggers (e.g., test failure), it can invoke a Lambda function to roll back the deployment via CodeDeploy API.
- ✗
Add a test stage in CodePipeline after the deployment stage and configure CodeDeploy to automatically roll back on pipeline failure.
Why it's wrong here
This is incorrect. CodeDeploy cannot automatically roll back on pipeline failure. CodeDeploy only rolls back deployments that fail within CodeDeploy itself. A test stage failure in CodePipeline does not trigger CodeDeploy rollback. Additional mechanisms like CloudWatch events or Lambda are needed.
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
Courseiva writes every SAP-C02 question from scratch — 1,660 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. 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.