SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A startup wants to deploy a web application on AWS with a serverless architecture. The application includes static content (HTML, CSS, JS) and a REST API backend using Lambda and DynamoDB. The company wants low latency and high availability globally. Which combination of services should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse Lambda@Edge as a full compute solution for APIs, overlooking its severe execution limits, or assume that an ALB provides global low latency when it is inherently regional and requires additional services like Global Accelerator for global performance.
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
✓
Amazon CloudFront for static content, Amazon API Gateway for the REST API, and AWS Lambda for compute.
It combines Amazon CloudFront for global low-latency delivery of static content, Amazon API Gateway to create and manage the REST API with built-in caching and throttling, and AWS Lambda for serverless compute. This architecture provides high availability, automatic scaling, and global edge caching, meeting the startup's requirements without managing servers.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon CloudFront for static content, Application Load Balancer for API, and Lambda for compute.
Why it's wrong here
An Application Load Balancer is regional, so it cannot serve the global low-latency requirement; API Gateway provides the managed, globally distributable REST endpoint for Lambda. ALB is the right front end when hosting containerised or EC2 targets behind a single-region load balancer, not a serverless API needing worldwide edge presence.
- ✗
AWS Lambda@Edge for both static content and API.
Why it's wrong here
Lambda@Edge runs only in response to CloudFront events and cannot host static objects or serve as a general REST API origin; S3 plus API Gateway fill those roles. Lambda@Edge suits request/response manipulation at edge locations, such as header rewriting or lightweight auth, not application hosting.
- ✓
Amazon CloudFront for static content, Amazon API Gateway for the REST API, and AWS Lambda for compute.
Why this is correct
CloudFront caches static assets at edge locations worldwide, cutting latency, while API Gateway fronts Lambda for a fully managed REST API. This serverless combination delivers the global low latency and high availability the startup requires without managing servers.
- ✗
Amazon S3 for static content with Transfer Acceleration, and AWS Lambda for API.
Why it's wrong here
S3 Transfer Acceleration speeds uploads into a bucket via edge locations; it does not cache content close to global viewers, so download latency stays high. CloudFront is required for edge caching. Transfer Acceleration fits accelerating large uploads from geographically distant clients into S3.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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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.