SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
A company uses AWS Lambda with a VPC configuration to access an RDS database. After a recent change, the Lambda function times out when connecting to the database. The security group and network ACLs appear correct. What should the company check first?
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
✓
That the Lambda function has a route to the database via a NAT gateway or VPC endpoint.
When a Lambda function is configured with VPC access, it can communicate with RDS instances within the same VPC (or peered VPCs) using private IP addresses, assuming proper security group and network ACL rules. The most likely cause of a timeout after a change is a missing route in the Lambda function's subnet's route table to the RDS subnet. NAT gateways are only required for internet access, and VPC endpoints are for AWS services (not RDS). Therefore, the administrator should first verify that the Lambda function's subnet has a route to the database's subnet. No password rotation, concurrency, or environment variable issue would cause a network timeout.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
That the database password has not been rotated.
Why it's wrong here
Password rotation would cause authentication errors, not timeouts.
- ✗
That the Lambda function's reserved concurrency is not set to zero.
Why it's wrong here
Reserved concurrency would cause throttling, not timeouts.
- ✓
That the Lambda function has a route to the database via a NAT gateway or VPC endpoint.
Why this is correct
If the database is in a private subnet, a NAT gateway is needed for the Lambda function to access it.
- ✗
That the Lambda function's environment variables are correctly set.
Why it's wrong here
Environment variables affect configuration, not network connectivity.
Visual reference
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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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.