SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
A social media startup uses AWS Lambda functions to process user-uploaded images. The Lambda function resizes images and stores them in Amazon S3. The function uses the S3 SDK to put objects. Recently, the team noticed that the function sometimes fails with 'Timeout' errors for large images. The Lambda function has a timeout of 5 seconds and 256 MB of memory. The team wants to improve the solution to handle larger images reliably and cost-effectively. Which solution should the team implement?
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
✓
Increase the Lambda function's timeout to 15 minutes and allocate more memory (e.g., 1024 MB).
(increase memory and timeout) directly addresses the issue: increasing memory also increases CPU and network throughput, which helps process large images faster; increasing timeout gives more time. Option A (EC2 with EBS) is overkill and not serverless, losing the benefits of Lambda. Option C (API Gateway with larger payload) does not help with Lambda's internal processing limits. Option D (Elastic Transcoder) is for video transcoding, not image resizing.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Migrate the image processing to a dedicated Amazon EC2 instance with an EBS volume.
Why it's wrong here
This removes serverless benefits and increases operational overhead.
- ✓
Increase the Lambda function's timeout to 15 minutes and allocate more memory (e.g., 1024 MB).
Why this is correct
More memory and timeout allow processing larger images within Lambda limits.
- ✗
Use Amazon API Gateway with a larger payload limit to offload the image processing.
Why it's wrong here
API Gateway does not process images; it only passes requests to Lambda.
- ✗
Use AWS Elastic Transcoder to resize images instead of Lambda.
Why it's wrong here
Elastic Transcoder is for video transcoding, not image resizing.
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 |
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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.