The correct approach is a warm standby, which deploys a scaled-down copy of the production environment in a secondary region that can be fully scaled up within 15 minutes to meet the RTO, while continuous replication keeps the RPO at one hour. This works because the warm standby model pre-provisions core infrastructure—like a smaller EC2 fleet and ALB—so failover requires only scaling out compute resources, not rebuilding the environment, directly satisfying the 15-minute RTO and 1-hour RPO. On the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional SAP-C02 exam, this scenario tests your ability to distinguish DR strategies by their recovery speed: pilot light takes longer to scale from a minimal footprint, backup and restore has a higher RTO, and multi-site active-active is overkill for these targets. A common trap is assuming pilot light can meet a 15-minute RTO, but its scale-up time often exceeds that window. Memory tip: “Warm standby warms up fast—pilot light needs a match.”
SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
This SAP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of design for new solutions. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A solutions architect is designing a disaster recovery plan for a critical application. The application runs on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB) in us-east-1. The recovery time objective (RTO) is 15 minutes, and the recovery point objective (RPO) is 1 hour. Which approach meets these requirements?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use a warm standby: maintain a scaled-down copy of the environment in us-west-2 that can be scaled up within 15 minutes.
Using a warm standby with a scaled-down copy of the environment in another region and failing over within 15 minutes meets RTO/RPO. Option D is correct. Option A is wrong because pilot light takes longer to scale. Option B is wrong because backup and restore has higher RTO. Option C is wrong because multi-site active-active is overkill and may exceed RTO if not properly configured.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
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 backup and restore: take hourly snapshots of EBS volumes and copy to us-west-2, then restore EC2 instances from snapshots.
Why it's wrong here
Restoring from snapshots takes longer than 15 minutes.
✗
Implement a pilot light strategy: replicate data to us-west-2 and keep a minimal stack running.
Why it's wrong here
Pilot light requires provisioning resources during failover, which may exceed 15 minutes.
✗
Deploy a multi-site active-active configuration with full capacity in both regions.
Why it's wrong here
This is costly and may not be necessary; also failover could be complex.
✓
Use a warm standby: maintain a scaled-down copy of the environment in us-west-2 that can be scaled up within 15 minutes.
Why this is correct
Warm standby allows quick scaling to full capacity within RTO.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
→Underline the problem statement mentally.
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which SAP-C02 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
Design for New Solutions — This question tests Design for New Solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use a warm standby: maintain a scaled-down copy of the environment in us-west-2 that can be scaled up within 15 minutes. — Using a warm standby with a scaled-down copy of the environment in another region and failing over within 15 minutes meets RTO/RPO. Option D is correct. Option A is wrong because pilot light takes longer to scale. Option B is wrong because backup and restore has higher RTO. Option C is wrong because multi-site active-active is overkill and may exceed RTO if not properly configured.
What should I do if I get this SAP-C02 question wrong?
Identify which SAP-C02 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
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.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.