SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question

A global e-commerce company is designing a new order-processing system that must survive the failure of an entire AWS Region. The system uses an Amazon Aurora MySQL database and must provide a recovery point objective (RPO) of 1 minute and a recovery time objective (RTO) of 5 minutes. The company wants to minimize operational overhead and avoid managing replication instances. Which solution should the solutions architect recommend?

⚠ Common exam trap

The trap here is treating Aurora Multi-AZ or cross-Region read replicas as equivalent to an Aurora global database for Region-wide disaster recovery with strict RPO and RTO.

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

✓

Create an Aurora global database with the primary cluster in one Region and a secondary cluster in another Region; configure the application to fail over using the secondary cluster's endpoint.

Aurora global database replicates data across Regions with sub-second typical latency, enabling an RPO well within one minute, and allows a secondary cluster to be promoted in under a minute, meeting the five-minute RTO. Because it is a managed feature with no replication instances to operate, it also minimizes operational overhead.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

✗
Configure Aurora MySQL with a cross-Region read replica using binary log replication, and promote the replica on failure.
Why it's wrong here
Aurora MySQL cross-Region read replicas use binlog replication, which can lag by seconds to minutes and does not guarantee a 1-minute RPO. Promotion also takes longer than the 5-minute RTO in many cases. This approach requires more operational management and does not meet the stated objectives as reliably as an Aurora global database.
✓
Create an Aurora global database with the primary cluster in one Region and a secondary cluster in another Region; configure the application to fail over using the secondary cluster's endpoint.
Why this is correct
Aurora global database replicates at the storage layer with typical lag under one second, meeting the 1-minute RPO, and allows promotion of a secondary cluster in under a minute, meeting the 5-minute RTO. It is fully managed, so no replication instances are needed, minimizing operational overhead. This directly satisfies all requirements.
✗
Take automated snapshots of the Aurora cluster and copy them to another Region; restore from the copied snapshot on failure.
Why it's wrong here
Snapshot copy and restore can take tens of minutes to hours, far exceeding the 5-minute RTO, and the RPO depends on snapshot frequency, which is at best hourly. This method is not suitable for a 1-minute RPO and 5-minute RTO. It also requires manual steps, increasing operational overhead.
✗
Deploy Aurora MySQL with a Multi-AZ configuration across three Availability Zones in a single Region; rely on automatic failover for disaster recovery.
Why it's wrong here
Aurora Multi-AZ provides high availability within a single Region but does not protect against a Region-wide failure. It also does not provide a cross-Region recovery path, so it fails the requirement to survive the loss of an entire Region. The RPO and RTO targets are irrelevant if the Region is unavailable.

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SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question

Why each option matters

Option-by-option breakdown

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