SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
A startup runs a containerized microservices application on Amazon ECS with Fargate. They use an Application Load Balancer to distribute traffic. The application consists of 10 services, each with its own ECS service. Recently, the startup launched a marketing campaign and traffic increased 10x. The application started returning HTTP 503 errors. The ECS service metrics show that the number of running tasks is at the maximum desired count for each service. The ALB target group health checks are failing intermittently. The startup needs to handle the increased traffic and prevent 503 errors. What should they do?
⚠ Common exam trap
SAP-C02 often tests the misconception that increasing task resources (CPU/memory) or adding load balancers solves a capacity problem, when the real ceiling is the ECS service's maximum desired task count.
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 desired count and maximum number of tasks for each ECS service.
The ECS services are already at their maximum desired count, so the Auto Scaling group cannot add more tasks even though demand has increased 10x. Raising both the desired count and the maximum number of tasks per service allows ECS to scale out further, relieving the overload that causes intermittent health check failures and 503s. This directly addresses the capacity ceiling.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Increase the desired count and maximum number of tasks for each ECS service.
Why this is correct
Running tasks sit at the maximum desired count, so ECS cannot scale further; raising both desired count and maximum task limit lets the service launch additional Fargate tasks behind the ALB, absorbing the 10x traffic and clearing the 503 errors.
- ✗
Increase the CPU and memory limits for each task definition.
Why it's wrong here
Increasing CPU and memory limits for each task definition may help but the tasks are already at maximum desired count, so scaling out is needed.
- ✗
Decrease the health check interval to detect failures faster.
Why it's wrong here
Decreasing the health check interval to detect failures faster may cause premature task termination because tasks are already failing health checks due to capacity issues.
- ✗
Add additional Application Load Balancers and split traffic across them.
Why it's wrong here
Adding additional Application Load Balancers and splitting traffic across them does not address the capacity issue because the existing tasks cannot handle the traffic; scaling out tasks is needed.
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This SAP-C02 question is part of Courseiva's 984-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
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.