SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
A developer is deploying a serverless application using AWS SAM. The deployment fails with a 'ResourceNotReady' error. What is the most likely cause?
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
✓
A resource that the application depends on is not yet created.
'ResourceNotReady' in AWS SAM indicates that a resource the application depends on is not yet created or still in progress. This often happens when a nested stack or a resource with dependencies (e.g., a DynamoDB table) is not fully provisioned before the dependent resource tries to use it. Option A is incorrect: invalid YAML syntax would cause a template validation error, not a 'ResourceNotReady' error. Option B is incorrect: too many tags would not cause this error; tags are metadata and do not affect resource readiness. Option D is incorrect: a Lambda runtime error would occur during function invocation, not during deployment.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The SAM template has invalid YAML syntax.
Why it's wrong here
Invalid YAML fails template parsing and validation before any stack resource is provisioned, so it cannot produce a ResourceNotReady wait condition. It is tempting because syntax errors are a common SAM failure, but they surface as validation errors, not resource-readiness timeouts.
- ✗
The application has too many tags.
Why it's wrong here
Tag count does not cause this error.
- ✓
A resource that the application depends on is not yet created.
Why this is correct
SAM and CloudFormation create resources in dependency order; a ResourceNotReady error occurs when a dependent resource, such as a nested stack or custom resource, has not finished provisioning before a downstream resource references it. The dependency is not yet created when required.
- ✗
The Lambda function code has a runtime error.
Why it's wrong here
A runtime error inside Lambda code occurs after the function is invoked, so CloudFormation already sees the resource as created. It is tempting because code faults are frequent, but ResourceNotReady means a resource never signalled readiness during stack creation, not that invocation logic failed.
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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