SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
A company uses AWS Lambda to process events from an Amazon SQS queue. The Lambda function is invoked with a batch size of 10. Recently, the function started failing with timeout errors when processing large batches. Which solution would improve the reliability of event processing without losing messages?
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
✓
Reduce the batch size to a smaller value, such as 5.
Reducing the batch size decreases the number of messages processed per invocation, which reduces the total processing time and helps avoid timeouts. Option A is incorrect because increasing the visibility timeout does not reduce the processing time within the function; it only prevents messages from becoming visible again before the function finishes. Option B is incorrect because increasing reserved concurrency increases the number of concurrent invocations but does not affect the processing time of a single invocation. Option C is incorrect because increasing the function timeout to 15 minutes may allow the function to complete, but it does not address the root cause of long processing times and could lead to higher costs and delayed processing; reducing the batch size is a more targeted solution.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increase the SQS queue visibility timeout to match the function timeout.
Why it's wrong here
Visibility timeout is for retries, not for preventing timeouts.
- ✗
Increase the Lambda function reserved concurrency to handle more invocations.
Why it's wrong here
Concurrency does not affect per-invocation timeout.
- ✗
Increase the Lambda function timeout to the maximum 15 minutes.
Why it's wrong here
Timeout increase may help but does not address the root cause of large batch processing time.
- ✓
Reduce the batch size to a smaller value, such as 5.
Why this is correct
Smaller batches reduce processing time per invocation.
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 |
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