SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A media company is designing a video transcoding pipeline. They receive raw video files in Amazon S3, which need to be transcoded into multiple formats. The pipeline must handle sporadic bursts of uploads and complete processing within 30 minutes for each video. The cost should be minimized. Which design should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates assume Lambda can handle any short-lived compute task, but they overlook the 15-minute timeout and lack of GPU support for video encoding, making it unsuitable for transcoding jobs that require longer processing times or specialized hardware acceleration.
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 S3 event notifications to trigger an AWS Elemental MediaConvert job.
AWS Elemental MediaConvert is a fully managed, serverless video transcoding service designed for high-volume, bursty workloads. It integrates directly with S3 event notifications, scales automatically to handle sporadic uploads, and completes each job within the required 30-minute window. Its pay-per-use pricing minimizes cost by eliminating idle infrastructure, unlike provisioned EC2 clusters or Lambda's 15-minute execution limit.
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 AWS Lambda with layers containing FFmpeg to transcode videos.
Why it's wrong here
Lambda has a 15-minute execution limit and 10 GB memory limit, insufficient for transcoding large videos.
- ✓
Use Amazon S3 event notifications to trigger an AWS Elemental MediaConvert job.
Why this is correct
MediaConvert is serverless, scales automatically, and is cost-effective for sporadic jobs.
- ✗
Provision a cluster of EC2 instances running FFmpeg, with Auto Scaling based on SQS queue depth.
Why it's wrong here
EC2 instances incur costs even when idle; management overhead is higher.
- ✗
Use Amazon Elastic Transcoder, which is fully managed and triggers from S3 events.
Why it's wrong here
Elastic Transcoder is legacy and being replaced by MediaConvert; also less feature-rich.
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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