SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company wants to deploy a containerized application on AWS. The application requires persistent storage that can be shared across multiple containers running on different EC2 instances. Which AWS service should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse Amazon EBS with a shared storage solution, but EBS volumes (except for the limited multi-attach feature) can only be attached to a single EC2 instance at a time, making it unsuitable for multi-instance shared access.
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
✓
Amazon EFS
Amazon EFS provides a fully managed, scalable, and elastic NFS file system that can be mounted concurrently on multiple EC2 instances. This makes it the ideal choice for persistent storage that must be shared across containers running on different EC2 instances, as it supports the NFSv4.1 and NFSv4.0 protocols and automatically scales storage capacity as files are added or removed.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
EC2 Instance Store
Why it's wrong here
Instance store is ephemeral, physically attached to one host, so it cannot be shared across containers on different EC2 instances and loses data on stop or termination. It is tempting for high-throughput scratch or cache workloads needing low-latency local disk, where persistence and cross-instance sharing are not required.
- ✓
Amazon EFS
Why this is correct
Amazon EFS provides a shared, elastic NFS file system mountable concurrently from multiple EC2 instances across Availability Zones, meeting the cross-instance shared persistence requirement. EBS volumes attach to a single instance, and instance store is ephemeral.
- ✗
Amazon S3
Why it's wrong here
Amazon S3 provides object storage accessed over HTTP APIs, not a POSIX file system, so containers cannot mount it as a shared persistent volume without additional layers. S3 suits storing static assets, backups or artefacts, not shared read-write application storage.
- ✗
Amazon EBS
Why it's wrong here
Amazon EBS volumes attach to a single EC2 instance within one Availability Zone, so they cannot be mounted concurrently by containers across multiple instances. EBS is the correct choice for low-latency block storage for a single instance, such as a database volume or boot disk.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
Related to this question
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on SAP-C02
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company is migrating a legacy monolithic application to AWS. The application currently uses a shared file system for storing user uploads. The solution architect needs to design a highly available and scalable storage solution that supports concurrent read/write operations from multiple EC2 instances. Which AWS service should be used?
medium- A.Amazon FSx for Windows File Server
- B.Amazon S3 with S3 File Gateway
- ✓ C.Amazon EFS
- D.Amazon EBS with Multi-Attach enabled
Why C: Amazon EFS provides a fully managed, elastic NFS file system that supports concurrent read/write access from thousands of EC2 instances across multiple Availability Zones. It is designed for high availability and scalability, automatically growing and shrinking as files are added or removed, making it ideal for a shared file system for user uploads in a migrated monolithic application.
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.