SAP-C02 Practice Question: Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity
A global company has a multi-region AWS deployment. They need to share a single Amazon RDS for MySQL database across multiple AWS Regions for disaster recovery. The database must have minimal data loss and RTO of less than 1 minute. Which solution meets these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse Multi-AZ (which is intra-Region) with cross-Region disaster recovery, or assume that cross-Region Read Replicas can achieve sub-minute RTO without understanding the manual promotion and DNS propagation delays inherent in that approach.
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 Amazon Aurora Global Database with MySQL compatibility.
Amazon Aurora Global Database with MySQL compatibility is designed for cross-Region disaster recovery with a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of less than 1 minute and minimal data loss (typically sub-second). It uses storage-based replication that is asynchronous but with very low latency, and it supports a managed failover process that promotes a secondary Region to primary in under a minute, meeting the strict RTO requirement.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use cross-Region Read Replicas with automatic failover.
Why it's wrong here
Asynchronous replication may cause data loss.
- ✓
Use Amazon Aurora Global Database with MySQL compatibility.
Why this is correct
Amazon Aurora Global Database replicates data asynchronously across up to five AWS Regions with typical latency under one second, enabling a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of seconds and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of under one minute by promoting a secondary region to primary. This satisfies the requirement for minimal data loss and sub-minute RTO across multiple Regions for disaster recovery.
- ✗
Use a Multi-AZ RDS instance with a standby in another Region.
Why it's wrong here
Multi-AZ is only within one Region.
- ✗
Use AWS Database Migration Service for continuous replication.
Why it's wrong here
DMS is not designed for low-RTO failover.
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
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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.