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AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional SAP-C02 (SAP-C02) — Questions 976–1050

1746 questions total · 24pages · All types, answers revealed

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976

MCQhard

A company has a multi-account AWS environment with a central logging account and multiple workload accounts. The security team requires that all VPC Flow Logs be delivered to a central S3 bucket in the logging account. The VPC Flow Logs are encrypted with a customer-managed KMS key in the logging account. The workload accounts have created VPC Flow Logs, but the logs are not appearing in the central S3 bucket. The IAM role used by VPC Flow Logs in the workload accounts has the necessary permissions to deliver logs to the central S3 bucket. What is the most likely cause of the issue?

A.The VPC Flow Logs are being delivered to CloudWatch Logs instead of S3.

B.The S3 bucket policy denies access to the workload accounts.

C.The S3 bucket has a bucket policy that requires encryption in transit.

D.The KMS key policy in the logging account does not grant the VPC Flow Logs service principal permission to use the key.

AnswerD

Key policy must allow the service principal from workload accounts.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because the KMS key policy must grant the VPC Flow Logs service principal permission to use the key for encryption. Even if the IAM role has permissions, the key policy is separate and must be explicitly set. Option B is wrong because bucket policies are evaluated after key policy; bucket policy is not the issue here.

Option C is wrong because VPC Flow Logs do not use CloudWatch Logs for S3 delivery directly. Option D is wrong because bucket policies are not the primary issue; the key policy is missing.

Full explanation →

977

Multi-Selecteasy

A company runs a stateless web application on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group. The application occasionally receives traffic spikes that cause the Auto Scaling group to launch new instances. However, the new instances take several minutes to become healthy, causing a temporary performance degradation. Which TWO actions would improve the scaling responsiveness? (Select TWO.)

Select 2 answers

A.Increase the Auto Scaling group cooldown period.

B.Reduce the target group health check interval to 5 seconds.

C.Decrease the health check grace period to 30 seconds.

D.Use a launch template with a pre-provisioned AMI that includes the application and dependencies.

E.Configure a scheduled scaling policy to add instances before expected traffic spikes.

AnswersD, E

Pre-warmed AMI reduces launch time.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because using a launch template with a pre-warmed Amazon Machine Image (AMI) reduces instance startup time. Option D is correct because scheduled scaling can add capacity before expected spikes. Option A is wrong because decreasing the health check grace period may cause instances to be terminated prematurely.

Option C is wrong because increasing cooldown period delays scaling. Option E is wrong because reducing the health check interval does not speed up instance initialization.

Full explanation →

978

MCQmedium

A company is migrating a critical workload to AWS and needs to ensure business continuity. The workload runs on a single EC2 instance with a 500 GB EBS volume. The company requires a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of 2 hours and a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes. Which solution meets these requirements with the least operational overhead?

A.Create an AMI of the instance every 15 minutes and launch a new instance from the latest AMI in case of failure.

B.Deploy the workload on Amazon RDS Multi-AZ and enable automatic failover.

C.Use Amazon EBS snapshots with a 15-minute frequency and automate recovery with AWS Backup.

D.Use AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery to continuously replicate the EC2 instance to another Region.

AnswerC

EBS snapshots provide cost-effective backups with low RPO and RTO.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because Amazon EBS snapshots can be automated to meet the 15-minute RPO, and restoring from a snapshot can meet the 2-hour RTO. Option B is wrong because Multi-AZ RDS is for databases, not EC2. Option C is wrong because replication instances incur high overhead.

Option D is wrong because AMIs are less frequent and slower to restore.

Full explanation →

979

MCQhard

A company is migrating a critical application to AWS and needs to ensure that the migration has minimal downtime. The application runs on a single on-premises server with a local MySQL database. Which strategy provides the lowest downtime?

A.Rehost the application using AWS Application Migration Service

B.Use AWS Backup to back up and restore to RDS

C.Stop the application, take a snapshot, and restore on EC2

D.Use AWS DMS with ongoing replication and cutover

AnswerD

DMS with ongoing replication allows near-zero downtime by keeping the target in sync until cutover.

Why this answer

Option C (Use AWS DMS with ongoing replication and cutover) is correct as it minimizes downtime. Option A (stop and copy) has downtime. Option B (backup and restore) has downtime.

Option D (rehost) also has downtime.

Full explanation →

980

MCQeasy

A company has a production AWS account and a development AWS account. The development team needs to assume an IAM role in the production account to deploy resources. What is the correct way to set up this cross-account access?

A.Create an IAM role in the production account with a trust policy that specifies the development account as a trusted entity

B.Apply a service control policy to allow cross-account access

C.Create an IAM user in the production account and share the credentials with the development team

D.Configure security group rules to allow access from the development account

AnswerA

This allows users from the development account to assume the role and gain permissions.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because cross-account IAM role access requires creating an IAM role in the production (trusting) account with a trust policy that explicitly lists the development (trusted) account as a principal. The development team then assumes that role using the AWS STS AssumeRole API, which returns temporary security credentials. This follows the AWS recommended pattern for delegating access without sharing long-term credentials.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates confuse network-level controls (security groups) or organizational policies (SCPs) with IAM-based cross-account trust, or mistakenly think sharing IAM user credentials is acceptable for cross-account access.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option B is wrong because service control policies (SCPs) are used to set permission boundaries across accounts in an AWS Organization; they do not grant cross-account access themselves and cannot be used to allow role assumption between accounts. Option C is wrong because sharing IAM user credentials violates the principle of least privilege and security best practices; it exposes long-term access keys that are not scoped or temporary, increasing risk. Option D is wrong because security group rules control network traffic at the instance level, not IAM-based access; they cannot grant API-level permissions to assume roles or deploy resources.

Full explanation →

981

MCQhard

A financial services company is designing a solution to process real-time stock trade data. The data is ingested via Amazon Kinesis Data Streams with a shard count of 10. Each shard receives 500 records per second, each record is 1 KB. The company needs to archive all raw data to Amazon S3 within 5 minutes of receipt and also run a Lambda function to enrich each record. What is the most cost-effective and scalable approach?

A.Configure Kinesis Data Firehose to read from the stream and deliver to S3, and use a Lambda function for enrichment.

B.Use Kinesis Data Analytics to archive data to S3.

C.Use the Kinesis Client Library (KCL) to process records and write to S3.

D.Use a Lambda function to read from the stream and write to S3.

AnswerA

Firehose handles buffering and delivery to S3; Lambda enriches records.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because Kinesis Data Firehose can read from the stream and buffer to S3 within minutes, while Lambda can process records in parallel. Option A is wrong because Lambda cannot directly write to S3 efficiently at this scale. Option C is wrong because KCL adds complexity and cost.

Option D is wrong because Kinesis Analytics is for analytics, not archiving.

Full explanation →

982

Multi-Selectmedium

Which TWO strategies can be used to reduce the cost of Amazon DynamoDB tables for a new application with unpredictable traffic patterns? (Choose two.)

Select 2 answers

A.Use DynamoDB auto scaling with provisioned capacity.

B.Use DynamoDB Streams to reduce write capacity.

C.Use DynamoDB global tables for multi-region replication.

D.Use DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) to reduce read capacity.

E.Use DynamoDB on-demand capacity mode.

AnswersA, E

Auto scaling adjusts capacity based on usage, preventing over-provisioning.

Why this answer

DynamoDB on-demand mode is ideal for unpredictable traffic, and auto scaling adjusts capacity based on load. Both help reduce costs compared to provisioned capacity with manual over-provisioning.

Full explanation →

983

MCQmedium

A company operates multiple AWS accounts using AWS Organizations. They want to centrally manage Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling groups across all accounts. The operations team needs to view and modify scaling policies from a single pane of glass. Which solution should they implement?

A.Use AWS CloudFormation StackSets to deploy the Auto Scaling groups consistently.

B.Use AWS Config rules to enforce desired scaling policies.

C.Use AWS Systems Manager Explorer with multi-account management.

D.Use Amazon CloudWatch cross-account dashboards.

AnswerC

Systems Manager Explorer provides a central dashboard for operational data across accounts.

Why this answer

AWS Systems Manager Explorer provides a single-pane-of-glass view across multiple AWS accounts and Regions, allowing the operations team to view and modify EC2 Auto Scaling policies centrally. It integrates with Systems Manager Automation runbooks to execute changes, such as updating scaling policies, across all accounts managed via AWS Organizations.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates confuse monitoring (CloudWatch dashboards) or compliance (Config rules) with the ability to both view and modify operational configurations, leading them to overlook Systems Manager Explorer's centralized management capabilities.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because AWS CloudFormation StackSets deploy and manage infrastructure consistently but do not provide a centralized operational interface to view or modify existing Auto Scaling scaling policies in real time. Option B is wrong because AWS Config rules are used for compliance auditing and remediation, not for interactive viewing or modification of scaling policies. Option D is wrong because Amazon CloudWatch cross-account dashboards enable monitoring of metrics but do not allow modification of Auto Scaling policies or provide a management interface for scaling actions.

Full explanation →

984

MCQmedium

A company uses Amazon DynamoDB for a gaming application. During a new game launch, they experience higher than expected latency on write operations. The table has on-demand capacity. What is the best way to improve write performance?

A.Use auto scaling with provisioned capacity.

B.Enable DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) for caching.

C.Increase the write capacity units (WCU).

D.Add a global secondary index (GSI) to the table.

AnswerB

DAX reduces response times for read-heavy workloads, but it can also help with write latency by offloading reads.

Why this answer

For write-heavy workloads, using DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) can reduce latency by caching writes. Option B is correct. Option A (increase WCU) is unnecessary with on-demand.

Option C (GSI) adds overhead. Option D (Auto Scaling) is for provisioned capacity.

Full explanation →

985

MCQeasy

A company has a legacy application that runs on an Amazon EC2 instance. The application writes logs to a local file. The company wants to centralize log monitoring without modifying the application code. Which solution should the company use?

A.Use Amazon Kinesis Agent to stream the log file to Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose.

B.Install the Amazon CloudWatch agent on the EC2 instance and configure it to tail the log file.

C.Modify the application to use the AWS SDK for logging to Amazon CloudWatch Logs.

D.Turn on AWS CloudTrail for the EC2 instance to capture logs.

E.Configure the application to write logs to Amazon S3 using the AWS SDK.

AnswerB

CloudWatch agent can collect logs from files and send to CloudWatch Logs.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because the CloudWatch agent can be installed on EC2 to send logs to CloudWatch Logs without code changes. Option A is wrong because copying logs to S3 requires custom scripting. Option B is wrong because Amazon Kinesis Agent is more complex and not necessary.

Option C is wrong because it would require modification to the application. Option E is wrong because CloudTrail is for API activity, not application logs.

Full explanation →

986

Multi-Selecthard

A company uses AWS Organizations with a hierarchical structure of organizational units (OUs). The security team needs to restrict the use of specific AWS services in the development OU. However, the SCP applied at the root level allows all services. Which TWO SCP strategies can restrict services for the development OU without affecting other OUs? (Choose TWO.)

Select 2 answers

A.Apply a tag policy to the development OU that requires tags for all resources.

B.Modify the root-level SCP to deny the unwanted services.

C.Use a service control policy that denies access to the unwanted services and attach it to the development OU.

D.Attach a deny SCP to the development OU that explicitly denies the unwanted services.

E.Create an IAM permissions boundary for all users in the development OU.

AnswersC, D

Deny SCPs are effective for restricting services.

Why this answer

Option A (attach SCP to the OU) and Option D (use a deny SCP for specific services) are correct. Option B is incorrect because tag policies don't restrict services. Option C is incorrect because IAM permissions boundaries do not override SCPs.

Option E is incorrect because it would affect all OUs.

Full explanation →

987

MCQeasy

A company plans to migrate its on-premises VMware VMs to AWS. The company wants to automate the migration of VM images and minimize manual effort. Which AWS service should the company use?

A.AWS VM Import/Export

B.AWS DataSync

C.AWS Server Migration Service (SMS)

D.AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)

AnswerA

VM Import/Export allows importing VM images as EC2 instances.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because AWS VM Import/Export allows importing VM images. Option A is wrong because AWS Server Migration Service (SMS) is now part of Application Migration Service. Option B is wrong because AWS DMS is for databases.

Option D is wrong because AWS DataSync is for file data.

Full explanation →

988

Multi-Selecthard

Which THREE factors should be considered when designing a disaster recovery plan for a multi-tier application using AWS? (Choose three.)

Select 3 answers

A.Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO).

B.Data replication strategy (e.g., synchronous vs. asynchronous).

C.DNS failover using Amazon Route 53.

D.Deploying the application across multiple Availability Zones.

E.Using larger instance sizes for better performance.

AnswersA, B, C

Key metrics for DR planning.

Why this answer

Options A, B, and D are correct. A: RTO and RPO define recovery objectives. B: Replication of data ensures consistency.

D: DNS failover routes traffic to DR site. C is incorrect because using larger instances may not be needed. E is incorrect because multiple AZs solve high availability within a region, not DR across regions.

Full explanation →

989

MCQmedium

A company runs a web application on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group. The application receives a variable workload. The company wants to scale based on a custom metric that tracks the number of active users. What is the MOST efficient way to achieve this?

A.Use a scheduled scaling policy to add or remove instances based on historical usage patterns.

B.Use AWS Lambda to periodically evaluate the custom metric and adjust the desired capacity via API calls.

C.Create a step scaling policy that uses CloudWatch alarms based on the custom metric.

D.Create a target tracking scaling policy using the custom metric as the target.

AnswerD

Target tracking automatically adjusts capacity to maintain the target metric value.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because a target tracking scaling policy automatically adjusts capacity based on the metric. Option A is wrong because step scaling is more complex and less efficient. Option C is wrong because scheduled scaling is for predictable patterns.

Option D is wrong because Lambda is not needed for this.

Full explanation →

990

Multi-Selecthard

A company is designing a new microservices architecture using Amazon ECS with the Fargate launch type. The services need to communicate securely within a VPC. The company requires that inter-service communication is encrypted and that the services can discover each other using DNS names. Which THREE steps should the company take to meet these requirements?

Select 3 answers

A.Deploy an Application Load Balancer in front of each service for inter-service communication.

B.Create a VPC peering connection between the services' subnets.

C.Enable AWS Cloud Map for service discovery.

D.Configure the ECS task definitions to use the awsvpc network mode.

E.Create VPC endpoints for Amazon ECR and Amazon S3 to allow Fargate tasks to pull images.

AnswersC, D, E

Cloud Map allows services to register and discover each other via DNS.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because Service Discovery enables DNS-based service discovery. Option B is correct because ECS tasks can use service discovery names via DNS. Option D is correct because VPC endpoints for ECR and other services are needed for Fargate to pull images.

Option C is wrong because VPC Peering is not needed; services are in the same VPC. Option E is wrong because an Application Load Balancer is not required for inter-service communication; service discovery and direct communication suffice.

Full explanation →

991

MCQhard

A financial services company runs a critical application on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group across multiple Availability Zones. They need to ensure that in the event of a single AZ failure, the application remains available with no data loss. The application uses EBS volumes for persistent storage. What should a solutions architect recommend?

A.Take periodic EBS snapshots and restore in another AZ.

B.Use Amazon EFS instead of EBS volumes.

C.Use an EBS volume in one AZ and attach it to instances in another AZ.

D.Use an EBS multi-attach volume with a cluster-aware file system.

AnswerD

Multi-attach allows simultaneous attachment to multiple instances; cluster file system ensures consistency.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because using an EBS multi-attach enabled volume with a cluster file system allows instances in different AZs to share the same storage, providing high availability and no data loss. Option A is wrong because EBS snapshots are not real-time. Option B is wrong because EBS volumes cannot be attached to instances in different AZs.

Option C is wrong because EFS is a different service and not EBS.

Full explanation →

992

MCQhard

A company has a complex AWS environment with multiple accounts and VPCs. The company wants to ensure that all outbound traffic from VPCs goes through a centralized inspection VPC for security monitoring. The company uses AWS Transit Gateway. Which solution should be implemented?

A.Deploy AWS Network Firewall in each VPC and configure routing to send outbound traffic through the firewall.

B.Use VPC peering to connect all VPCs to the inspection VPC and configure routes.

C.Use Route 53 Resolver to forward all outbound DNS queries to the inspection VPC.

D.Create a Transit Gateway with route tables. Attach the inspection VPC as a central hub. Configure the route tables of the transit gateway to point the default route (0.0.0.0/0) to the inspection VPC attachment. Then attach all other VPCs and configure their route tables to send traffic to the Transit Gateway.

AnswerD

Transit Gateway route tables can direct traffic to inspection VPC.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because it uses AWS Transit Gateway with centralized route tables to force all outbound traffic from attached VPCs through the inspection VPC. By configuring the Transit Gateway route table with a default route (0.0.0.0/0) pointing to the inspection VPC attachment, all outbound traffic from other VPCs is routed to the inspection VPC for security monitoring before leaving the network. This design meets the requirement of a single, centralized inspection point without requiring VPC peering or per-VPC firewall deployments.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse VPC peering with Transit Gateway, assuming peering can achieve transitive routing, but AWS VPC peering explicitly does not support transitive routing, making Option B invalid for centralized inspection.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because deploying AWS Network Firewall in each VPC creates a decentralized inspection model, not a centralized one, and does not leverage Transit Gateway for traffic flow. Option B is wrong because VPC peering does not support transitive routing; each peering connection is a one-to-one relationship, so traffic cannot be centrally routed through a single inspection VPC without complex full-mesh peering. Option C is wrong because Route 53 Resolver only handles DNS queries, not general outbound traffic (e.g., HTTP, HTTPS, or other IP protocols), and thus cannot enforce security monitoring on all outbound traffic.

Full explanation →

993

MCQhard

A company is migrating a critical application to AWS using the 7 Rs migration strategy. The application is tightly coupled with legacy infrastructure and has compliance requirements that prevent any code changes. The migration must be completed in 3 months. Which strategy is most appropriate?

A.Retain the application on-premises and use AWS Storage Gateway for backup.

B.Rehost using AWS Application Migration Service (MGN) and Amazon EC2.

C.Replatform to use Amazon RDS for MySQL.

D.Refactor into microservices on Amazon ECS.

AnswerB

No code changes needed, fast migration.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because rehosting (lift-and-shift) meets the no-code-change requirement and can be done quickly. Option A is wrong because replatforming may require changes. Option C is wrong because refactoring requires code changes.

Option D is wrong because retaining the application on-premises does not meet the migration goal.

Full explanation →

994

MCQmedium

A company has a production AWS account and a development AWS account under AWS Organizations. The development team wants to deploy a CloudFormation stack that creates an S3 bucket with a bucket policy that grants access to the production account's IAM roles. The development account has an SCP that denies all s3:PutBucketPolicy actions. The development team has full administrator access in their account. When they try to create the stack, it fails. What is the most likely reason and how should they proceed?

A.The development team does not have IAM permissions to create buckets. They need to attach an IAM policy that allows s3:PutBucketPolicy.

B.The SCP denies s3:PutBucketPolicy and overrides the administrator permissions. They need to request an exception to the SCP from the security team.

C.CloudFormation service role is missing. They need to create a service role with appropriate permissions.

D.The production account's IAM roles are not trusted. They need to update the trust policy.

AnswerB

SCPs can deny actions even to administrators.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because SCPs apply to all principals in the account, including administrators. Option A is wrong because the development team has admin access. Option B is wrong because CloudFormation does not have a separate policy.

Option D is wrong because IAM roles do not override SCPs.

Full explanation →

995

MCQhard

A company is migrating a legacy .NET Framework 4.7 application to AWS. The application uses Windows authentication and COM+ components. Which migration approach is most suitable?

A.Replatform to .NET Core on AWS Elastic Beanstalk (Linux)

B.Use Windows containers on Amazon ECS with Amazon ECS-optimized Windows Server AMI

C.Refactor to run on AWS Lambda with .NET Core 3.1

D.Containerize with Linux containers on Amazon ECS

AnswerB

Windows containers support .NET Framework and COM+ components.

Why this answer

Windows containers on Amazon ECS with Windows Server Core support .NET Framework applications and COM+. Option A is wrong because Linux containers do not support .NET Framework. Option B is wrong because Elastic Beanstalk with Linux does not support .NET Framework.

Option D is wrong because Lambda does not support full .NET Framework.

Full explanation →

996

Multi-Selecteasy

A company is migrating to a multi-account AWS environment using AWS Control Tower. The security team must ensure that all accounts have AWS Config enabled and that logs are delivered to a central S3 bucket. Which THREE steps should the security team take?

Select 3 answers

A.Manually create an S3 bucket in each account to store Config logs.

B.Use an SCP to prevent disabling of AWS Config in any account.

C.Configure the central S3 bucket policy to allow cross-account log delivery from all accounts in the organization.

D.Enable AWS Config in the management account and use Control Tower's account factory to propagate the configuration to all accounts.

E.Create an IAM role in each account to allow the management account to access Config logs.

AnswersB, C, D

SCPs can deny actions that disable Config.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because AWS Control Tower uses Service Control Policies (SCPs) to enforce guardrails. An SCP can be applied to the root or OUs to prevent any account from disabling AWS Config, ensuring compliance across the multi-account environment without requiring per-account manual intervention.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often think they need to create IAM roles in each account for cross-account logging, but AWS Config's native cross-account delivery only requires a properly configured S3 bucket policy and does not rely on IAM roles in the member accounts.

Full explanation →

997

Multi-Selectmedium

A company is migrating a monolithic application to a microservices architecture on AWS. They want to improve deployment frequency and reduce risk. Which TWO strategies should they adopt?

Select 2 answers

A.Deploy all microservices from a single codebase.

B.Implement blue/green deployments.

C.Use CI/CD pipelines with automated testing.

D.Require manual approval for each production deployment.

E.Use feature branches with manual merge approvals.

AnswersB, C

Blue/green deployments reduce risk by switching traffic between environments.

Why this answer

Correct answers are A and E. Option A reduces risk by limiting blast radius. Option E speeds up releases by automating testing and deployment.

Option B is wrong because long-lived branches increase merge complexity. Option C is wrong because manual gates slow down frequency. Option D is wrong because rebuilding from scratch is risky and slow.

Full explanation →

998

MCQhard

A company has a microservices architecture running on Amazon ECS with Fargate. Each service writes logs to CloudWatch Logs. The operations team needs to search across all logs for a specific error pattern. Currently, they manually query each log group, which is time-consuming. What is the MOST efficient way to enable centralized log search?

A.Export logs to Amazon S3 and use Amazon Athena to query them.

B.Use CloudWatch Contributor Insights to identify the top error sources.

C.Create a subscription filter for each log group that sends logs to a Kinesis Data Firehose delivery stream.

D.Use CloudWatch Logs Insights to query all log groups from a single query.

AnswerD

CloudWatch Logs Insights supports querying multiple log groups simultaneously.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because CloudWatch Logs Insights allows querying multiple log groups in a single query, enabling centralized search. Option B is wrong because subscription filters send logs to a destination, but Kinesis Data Firehose is not designed for ad-hoc search. Option C is wrong because S3 is for long-term storage, not real-time search.

Option D is wrong because CloudWatch Contributor Insights analyzes top contributors, not arbitrary patterns.

Full explanation →

999

MCQeasy

A company is designing a microservices architecture on Amazon ECS with Fargate. They want to ensure that services can communicate with each other but are isolated from the internet. What is the MOST secure way to achieve this?

A.Use VPC peering to connect the subnets of each service.

B.Use AWS PrivateLink to create VPC endpoints for each service.

C.Place services in public subnets and use security groups to restrict inbound traffic.

D.Place all ECS services in private subnets and use AWS Cloud Map for service discovery.

AnswerD

Private subnets ensure no internet exposure; Cloud Map provides DNS-based service discovery.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because placing services in private subnets and using ECS service discovery with AWS Cloud Map allows internal DNS resolution without internet exposure. Option B is wrong because AWS PrivateLink is used for accessing services over endpoints, not service-to-service. Option C is wrong because VPC peering is for connecting VPCs, not for service discovery.

Option D is wrong because placing in public subnets exposes services to the internet.

Full explanation →

1000

MCQeasy

A company is using Amazon RDS for MySQL and wants to minimize downtime during a major version upgrade. Which approach is the MOST effective?

A.Take a snapshot, restore as a new instance with the new version, and update the application endpoint.

B.Create a read replica with the new version, promote it to primary, and update the application endpoint.

C.Launch a new RDS instance with the new version, use DMS to migrate data, and switch the application endpoint.

D.Use the AWS RDS modify-db-instance command with the --allow-major-version-upgrade option. This typically causes a few minutes of downtime but is the simplest.

AnswerB

This approach minimizes downtime as the promotion is fast.

Why this answer

Creating a read replica, upgrading it, and then promoting it to primary minimizes downtime because the promotion is a quick operation.

Full explanation →

1001

MCQmedium

A company is using AWS CodePipeline to build and deploy a Java application to Elastic Beanstalk. Recently, deployments have been failing due to unit test failures in the build stage. The team wants to receive immediate notifications when a pipeline fails. What is the MOST efficient way to achieve this?

A.Configure CodePipeline to send notifications to an Amazon SNS topic when the pipeline fails.

B.Have the build script send a notification on failure using the AWS CLI.

C.Set up a CloudWatch Events rule to trigger an AWS Lambda function that sends an email via Amazon SES.

D.Create a CloudWatch alarm on the CodePipeline failure metric.

AnswerA

Direct and efficient.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because CodePipeline can publish events to Amazon SNS when the pipeline state changes, enabling notifications. Option A is wrong because CloudWatch alarms are for metrics, not pipeline state. Option C is wrong because CloudWatch Events (now Amazon EventBridge) can trigger notifications, but using SNS directly from CodePipeline is simpler.

Option D is wrong because SES is for email sending, but SNS is more appropriate.

Full explanation →

1002

Multi-Selectmedium

A company has a multi-account AWS environment and wants to implement a secure, scalable cross-account network architecture using AWS Transit Gateway. Which TWO steps should be taken?

Select 2 answers

A.Deploy VPC endpoints in each account for communication

B.Create a Transit Gateway in a central networking account and share it with other accounts using AWS Resource Access Manager

C.Create VPC attachments in each account to connect to the shared Transit Gateway

D.Establish VPC peering connections between each account and the central networking account

E.Set up AWS Direct Connect between all accounts

AnswersB, C

RAM allows sharing the Transit Gateway with other accounts.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because AWS Transit Gateway must be created in a central networking account and then shared with other accounts using AWS Resource Access Manager (RAM) to enable cross-account connectivity without VPC peering. This centralizes routing and simplifies network management across multiple VPCs and accounts.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates confuse VPC endpoints (used for service access) with Transit Gateway (used for VPC-to-VPC routing), or assume VPC peering is sufficient for multi-account scalability despite its non-transitive nature and management overhead.

Full explanation →

1003

MCQhard

A company runs a production database on Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL. The database experiences high write latency during peak hours. The company wants to improve write performance with minimal cost. Which action should a solutions architect take?

A.Enable Multi-AZ deployment for automatic failover.

B.Add multiple read replicas in different Availability Zones.

C.Use RDS for PostgreSQL with multiple write replicas and configure application-level sharding.

D.Increase the allocated storage and provisioned IOPS.

AnswerC

Sharding distributes writes across multiple instances, reducing latency.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because using multiple write replicas with sharding distributes the write load. Option A is wrong because adding more read replicas does not help write performance. Option B is wrong because Multi-AZ does not improve write performance; it provides failover.

Option C is wrong while increasing IOPS helps, it may not be cost-effective compared to sharding.

Full explanation →

1004

MCQhard

A healthcare startup is building a HIPAA-compliant application on AWS. The application uses Amazon RDS for MySQL to store patient data. The compliance team requires that all database changes be audited, including SELECT statements. The current solution enables general query logs on the RDS instance, but the logs are stored locally and are lost when the instance is rebooted. Additionally, the logs are consuming significant storage on the instance. The startup needs a durable, scalable, and cost-effective solution for storing and querying database audit logs. Which solution meets these requirements?

A.Enable audit logs on RDS and use Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose to stream logs to Amazon S3. Use Amazon Athena to query the logs.

B.Configure RDS to publish audit logs to Amazon CloudWatch Logs, then export logs to Amazon S3 using a subscription filter and Lambda. Use Athena to query the logs in S3.

C.Enable the general query log on RDS and set the log_output to TABLE. Write a scheduled script to copy the log table to Amazon S3.

D.Enable audit logs on RDS and stream them to Amazon CloudWatch Logs. Use CloudWatch Logs Insights to query logs.

AnswerB

CloudWatch Logs provides durable storage, export to S3 for cost-effective long-term storage, and Athena enables querying.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because it provides durable, scalable, and cost-effective storage for audit logs with the ability to query using Athena. Option A: Storing logs in CloudWatch Logs is scalable but querying can be expensive for large volumes; also CloudWatch Logs is not the best for long-term ad-hoc queries. Option B: S3 with Athena is cost-effective for querying, but Kinesis Data Firehose is not the best for real-time streaming; also adding a Lambda adds complexity.

Option D: RDS for MySQL does not support exporting logs directly to S3; also the logs are lost on reboot.

Full explanation →

1005

MCQmedium

A company has a multi-account AWS environment using AWS Organizations with 50 accounts. The accounts are organized into OUs based on environment: Production, Staging, and Development. The central IT team uses AWS CloudFormation StackSets to deploy a baseline network configuration (VPC, subnets, security groups) to all accounts. Recently, the network team updated the stack set to add a new subnet to the VPC. After the update, they noticed that the stack set operation failed for 10 accounts. The error message indicates that the stack set cannot update because a resource already exists. What is the MOST LIKELY cause of this failure?

A.The accounts are in different OUs and the stack set is not configured to deploy to all OUs.

B.Some accounts have manually created resources that conflict with the stack set template's resources.

C.The network team does not have sufficient IAM permissions to update stacks in those accounts.

D.The stack set was previously drift-detected and the drift is preventing updates.

AnswerB

If a resource with the same logical ID already exists outside the stack, CloudFormation cannot update the stack and throws an error.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because StackSets use a single template, and if an account already has a resource with the same logical ID (e.g., due to a previous manual creation), the update fails. Option A is wrong because stack set updates can be performed with proper permissions. Option B is wrong because StackSets can manage resources across OUs, but the issue is resource conflict.

Option D is wrong because drift does not prevent updates; it would be detected separately.

Full explanation →

1006

MCQmedium

A company has multiple AWS accounts managed under AWS Organizations. The security team needs to enforce that all newly created S3 buckets in any account are automatically tagged with a 'CostCenter' tag. Which solution is the MOST operationally efficient?

A.Use an AWS Lambda function triggered by AWS CloudTrail to tag buckets after creation.

B.Use an AWS Config rule to mark non-compliant buckets and automatically apply tags.

C.Use AWS CloudFormation StackSets to deploy a template that creates tagged buckets in each account.

D.Use a service control policy (SCP) to deny s3:CreateBucket unless the request includes a 'CostCenter' tag.

AnswerD

SCPs can deny API calls based on conditions, enforcing tagging across all accounts.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because SCPs can enforce tagging at the API level across all accounts in the organization. Option B is wrong because Lambda functions require manual setup per account. Option C is wrong because AWS Config rules only detect non-compliance, not prevent creation.

Option D is wrong because CloudFormation StackSets require manual template application.

Full explanation →

1007

MCQmedium

A financial services company uses Amazon RDS for MySQL as the backend for a trading application. The application runs on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an ALB. The database is a Multi-AZ DB instance with 500 GB provisioned storage. During peak trading hours, the application becomes slow. The RDS metrics show high CPU utilization and high read IOPS. The application performs many read-heavy queries. The team needs to improve performance without application changes. What should they do?

A.Create one or more read replicas and direct read traffic to them.

B.Modify the DB instance to a larger instance type with more vCPUs.

C.Enable Performance Insights and create a CloudWatch dashboard.

D.Convert the DB instance to a Multi-AZ cluster with two readable standbys.

AnswerA

Read replicas offload read queries, reducing load on the primary instance.

Why this answer

Option C is correct. Adding read replicas offloads read traffic from the primary instance, reducing CPU and IOPS load. Option A: Increasing instance size helps but may require downtime.

Option B: Multi-AZ is for high availability, not read scaling. Option D: Enabling Performance Insights provides monitoring but does not directly improve performance.

Full explanation →

1008

MCQhard

A company is designing a new application that requires low-latency access to a shared dataset across multiple EC2 instances in the same AWS Region. The dataset is updated frequently. Which storage solution should the company use?

A.Amazon S3

B.Amazon EBS with Provisioned IOPS

C.Amazon S3 Glacier

D.Amazon EFS

AnswerD

EFS is a scalable file system that can be mounted on multiple EC2 instances.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because Amazon EFS provides a shared file system with low latency and is accessible from multiple EC2 instances. Option A is wrong because EBS volumes can only be attached to one instance at a time (unless using Multi-Attach, which has limitations). Option B is wrong because S3 is object storage, not file storage.

Option D is wrong because S3 Glacier is for archival.

Full explanation →

1009

Multi-Selectmedium

A company is running a critical application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer. The application needs to process a large batch job that runs once per month and takes 2 hours. The company wants to optimize costs while ensuring the batch job has sufficient capacity. Which THREE steps should a solutions architect recommend?

Select 3 answers

A.Create a scheduled scaling policy that increases the desired capacity before the batch job starts.

B.Use a launch template with multiple instance types to increase the chances of obtaining Spot capacity.

C.Use On-Demand Instances only for the batch job to ensure availability.

D.Use Spot Instances in the Auto Scaling group for the batch job.

E.Purchase Reserved Instances for the batch job capacity.

AnswersA, B, D

Scheduled scaling ensures capacity is available when needed.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because a scheduled scaling policy allows you to increase the desired capacity of the Auto Scaling group before the batch job starts, ensuring sufficient resources are available exactly when needed. This proactive approach avoids the latency of dynamic scaling and optimizes cost by not maintaining extra capacity outside the batch window.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates may assume On-Demand or Reserved Instances are required for reliability, but the question emphasizes cost optimization and the batch job's fault tolerance, making Spot Instances with a scheduled scaling policy the correct approach.

Full explanation →

1010

MCQmedium

A data analytics company is building a real-time streaming pipeline using Amazon Kinesis Data Streams. The data is consumed by multiple consumer applications, each with different processing requirements. The company wants to ensure that each consumer can process records independently without affecting others and can reprocess data from a specific point in time. Which feature should the company use?

A.Use Enhanced Fan-Out with a timestamp to start reading.

B.Increase the data retention period to 365 days.

C.Use resharding to increase the number of shards.

D.Use the Kinesis Client Library (KCL) with checkpointing.

AnswerA

Enhanced Fan-Out provides dedicated throughput per consumer and supports starting from a specific timestamp.

Why this answer

Enhanced Fan-Out (EFO) provides each consumer with a dedicated 2 MB/second read throughput per shard, ensuring independent processing without contention. By using the SubscribeToShard API with a starting position specified via a timestamp, consumers can reprocess data from a specific point in time, meeting the requirement exactly.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse checkpointing (which manages consumer state but not throughput isolation) with Enhanced Fan-Out (which provides dedicated throughput and independent consumption), leading them to select the KCL with checkpointing option instead.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option B is wrong because increasing the data retention period to 365 days (the maximum) only extends how long records are stored in the stream; it does not provide dedicated throughput per consumer or enable independent reprocessing from a specific timestamp. Option C is wrong because resharding increases the number of shards to scale write/read capacity, but it does not give each consumer a dedicated connection or the ability to reprocess from a chosen point without affecting other consumers. Option D is wrong because the Kinesis Client Library (KCL) with checkpointing allows consumers to track their progress and resume from a checkpoint, but it still shares the 2 MB/second per shard among all consumers using the same shard, causing contention and lacking the independent, low-latency delivery that Enhanced Fan-Out provides.

Full explanation →

1011

Multi-Selecthard

A company is designing a new solution to host a static website with global low latency. The website content is stored in an S3 bucket and must be secured with HTTPS. Which three services or features should be used together to meet these requirements?

Select 3 answers

A.Application Load Balancer

B.S3 bucket configured as an origin with Origin Access Control (OAC)

C.Amazon Route 53

D.AWS Certificate Manager (ACM) to provision a custom SSL certificate

E.Amazon CloudFront

AnswersB, D, E

Restricts direct access to S3, ensuring content is served only through CloudFront.

Why this answer

Amazon CloudFront provides global content delivery with low latency and supports HTTPS. The S3 bucket must be configured as an origin with OAI or OAC to restrict direct access, and a custom SSL certificate can be used for HTTPS. Option A, C, and D are correct.

Option B is wrong because Route 53 is not required for CloudFront (CloudFront provides its own domain). Option E is wrong because ALB is not needed for a static website.

Full explanation →

1012

MCQmedium

A company is migrating a web application from on-premises to AWS. The application consists of a stateless web tier and a stateful application tier that stores session data in a local file system. The company wants to use AWS Elastic Beanstalk for both tiers. During a test migration, the development team notices that users are being logged out intermittently. The application tier is configured with two EC2 instances behind an internal load balancer. What should the development team do to resolve the issue?

A.Enable sticky sessions (session affinity) on the application tier's load balancer.

B.Move session storage to Amazon ElastiCache for Redis and configure the application to use it.

C.Increase the number of instances in the web tier to reduce the load on the application tier.

D.Store session data in Amazon DynamoDB.

AnswerB

ElastiCache provides a centralized, fast session store that works across instances.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because session data stored locally is lost when the instance is terminated or when traffic is routed to a different instance. Using ElastiCache for Redis provides a centralized session store that persists across instances. Option B is wrong because sticky sessions (session affinity) can cause load imbalance and are not a best practice.

Option C is wrong because scaling the web tier does not fix the session state issue. Option D is wrong because DynamoDB is not a native session store and requires custom code.

Full explanation →

1013

MCQhard

A company has a central networking account that hosts a transit gateway (TGW). Multiple VPCs from various accounts are attached to the TGW. The security team wants to ensure that only specific VPCs can communicate with each other, but all VPCs need access to a shared services VPC. Which configuration should be used?

A.Create a VPC peering connection between each pair of VPCs that need to communicate.

B.Use AWS PrivateLink to connect VPCs to the shared services VPC.

C.Use a single TGW route table for all attachments and control traffic with security groups.

D.Create separate TGW route tables for each VPC and only propagate the shared services VPC routes.

AnswerD

This isolates VPCs from each other while allowing all to reach shared services.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because using separate TGW route tables for each VPC allows you to control which VPCs can communicate by selectively propagating only the shared services VPC routes into each VPC's route table. This ensures all VPCs can reach the shared services VPC, while VPCs that do not have each other's routes in their respective route tables cannot communicate directly. This approach leverages the transitive routing capability of the transit gateway while maintaining strict isolation between non-shared VPCs.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often assume a single TGW route table with security groups can control inter-VPC traffic, but security groups cannot be applied to transit gateway attachments—they only work at the instance or ENI level, and TGW route tables control routing, not filtering.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because VPC peering connections are point-to-point and do not scale well; they require a separate peering connection for every pair of VPCs, which becomes unmanageable as the number of VPCs grows, and they do not leverage the existing transit gateway. Option B is wrong because AWS PrivateLink is used to expose services privately within a VPC, not to enable general VPC-to-VPC routing; it would only allow VPCs to access specific services in the shared services VPC, not full network-layer communication between all VPCs. Option C is wrong because using a single TGW route table for all attachments would allow all VPCs to communicate with each other by default (since all routes are shared), and security groups cannot be applied to TGW attachments to filter traffic between VPCs—security groups are stateful firewalls for instances, not for transit gateway routing decisions.

Full explanation →

1014

MCQhard

A company is migrating from a monolithic application to microservices on AWS. They need to reduce the blast radius of failures. Which architecture pattern should they implement?

A.Implement Auto Scaling groups for each microservice without separating data stores.

B.Use a cell-based architecture where each microservice runs in isolated cells with independent data stores.

C.Route all traffic through a single Application Load Balancer to simplify management.

D.Deploy all microservices in a single Availability Zone with a shared database.

AnswerB

Cell-based architecture isolates failures to one cell, reducing overall impact.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because adopting a cell-based architecture isolates failures to individual cells, reducing blast radius. Option A is wrong because a single shared database creates a single point of failure. Option C is wrong while Auto Scaling helps with capacity, it does not isolate failures.

Option D is wrong because a single Application Load Balancer can still be a bottleneck.

Full explanation →

1015

MCQhard

A large enterprise uses AWS Organizations with hundreds of accounts. The central security team needs to enforce that no IAM users are created in any account; instead, all access must be through IAM roles federated with the corporate identity provider. The security team wants to detect any IAM user creation and automatically remediate it by deleting the user and notifying the security team. Which solution should be implemented?

A.Use AWS Config with a custom rule triggered by iam:CreateUser, and an AWS Lambda function that deletes the user and sends an Amazon SNS notification.

B.Use IAM Access Analyzer to detect and report IAM user creation.

C.Use an SCP to deny iam:CreateUser across all accounts.

D.Enable AWS CloudTrail and create a metric filter for iam:CreateUser, then set up an Amazon CloudWatch alarm that triggers an SNS notification.

AnswerA

Config rule triggers Lambda for automatic remediation and notification.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because AWS Config custom rules can be triggered on specific API calls via AWS CloudTrail events. By configuring a custom rule with an AWS Lambda function triggered by iam:CreateUser, the solution can automatically delete the newly created IAM user and send an SNS notification to the security team, providing both detection and remediation.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates may choose an SCP (Option C) because it prevents IAM user creation, but the question specifically requires detection and automatic remediation (deletion and notification), not just prevention.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option B is wrong because IAM Access Analyzer is designed to analyze resource-based policies for unintended cross-account access, not to detect or report IAM user creation events. Option C is wrong because an SCP that denies iam:CreateUser would prevent IAM user creation proactively, but the question explicitly requires detection and automatic remediation (deletion and notification), not just prevention. Option D is wrong because a CloudWatch alarm on a metric filter for iam:CreateUser can only trigger a notification; it cannot automatically delete the IAM user, so it lacks the remediation step required by the question.

Full explanation →

1016

Matchingmedium

Match each AWS monitoring and logging service to its capability.

Drag a concept onto its matching description — or click a concept then click the description.

Concepts

Matches

Collect metrics, logs, and set alarms

Record API activity for auditing

Assess, audit, and evaluate resource configurations

Trace and analyze distributed application requests

Automated security assessment of workloads

Why these pairings

These services provide observability, compliance, and security insights.

Full explanation →

1017

MCQhard

A company is designing a new hybrid cloud solution that requires low-latency access to on-premises data from AWS. The connection must be highly available and encrypted. The company has multiple VPCs and on-premises locations. Which combination of services meets these requirements?

A.AWS Site-to-Site VPN and VPC Endpoints

B.AWS Transit Gateway and AWS Direct Connect with VPN backup

C.VPC Peering and AWS Site-to-Site VPN

D.AWS Client VPN and VPC Peering

AnswerB

Transit Gateway provides a hub-and-spoke model for multiple VPCs and on-premises networks. Direct Connect offers dedicated low-latency connections with encryption, and VPN provides a backup.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because AWS Transit Gateway connects multiple VPCs and on-premises networks, and AWS Direct Connect provides dedicated encrypted connections with low latency and high availability when combined with VPN. Option A is wrong because VPC Peering does not support transitive routing or encrypted connections. Option C is wrong because Client VPN is for individual users, not site-to-site connections.

Option D is wrong because AWS Site-to-Site VPN alone does not provide the low latency and high bandwidth of Direct Connect.

Full explanation →

1018

Matchingmedium

Match each AWS compute service to its use case.

Drag a concept onto its matching description — or click a concept then click the description.

Concepts

Matches

Serverless compute for event-driven applications

Run Docker containers without managing servers

Managed Kubernetes for container orchestration

Serverless compute for containers

Virtual servers for full control over the environment

Why these pairings

Different compute services offer varying levels of control and abstraction.

Full explanation →

1019

Multi-Selecthard

A company manages 200 AWS accounts using AWS Organizations. The security team wants to prevent developers from creating resources outside of a set of approved AWS Regions. Additionally, they want to restrict the creation of resources that are not tagged with a cost center tag. Which THREE actions should be taken to enforce these requirements?

Select 3 answers

A.Create an SCP that denies all actions in non-approved regions.

B.Enable AWS Config rules to detect untagged resources and automatically apply the required tag.

C.Use IAM policies in each account to deny actions in non-approved regions.

D.Define a tag policy using AWS Organizations to enforce cost center tags.

E.Create an SCP that denies the creation of resources that do not have a cost center tag.

AnswersA, B, E

SCPs can centrally deny actions in specific regions.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because SCPs can deny actions in non-approved regions. Option C is correct because SCPs can deny creation of resources that do not have the required tag. Option D is correct because AWS Config rules can detect untagged resources and trigger remediation.

Option B is wrong because IAM policies are per-account and not centrally managed; they can be used but SCPs are more centralized. Option E is wrong because Tag Policies enforce tagging on resource creation via SCPs, but they do not remediate existing resources.

Full explanation →

1020

MCQeasy

A company uses Amazon CloudWatch Logs to collect application logs. The operations team wants to be notified when a specific error message appears in the logs. What is the SIMPLEST way to achieve this?

A.Configure S3 event notifications on the log file destination to send an alert.

B.Subscribe a Lambda function to the log group and have it check for the error message.

C.Create a metric filter on the log group for the error message and set up a CloudWatch alarm on the metric.

D.Use CloudWatch Logs Insights to run a query periodically and send results via email.

AnswerC

Metric filters convert log events into metrics, and alarms can trigger notifications.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because a metric filter can create a metric from log events, and an alarm can trigger when the metric breaches a threshold. Option A is wrong because CloudWatch Logs Insights is for querying, not real-time alerting. Option C is wrong because an S3 event notification is for S3 events, not log content.

Option D is wrong because Lambda subscriptions are for real-time processing, but simpler is metric filter + alarm.

Full explanation →

1021

Multi-Selecthard

A company runs a critical application on Amazon RDS for MySQL. The database size is 500 GB and growing. The application experiences high write latency during peak hours. A Solutions Architect needs to improve write performance with minimal downtime. Which THREE actions should the architect take? (Choose three.)

Select 3 answers

A.Migrate the database to Amazon Aurora with MySQL compatibility.

B.Add a read replica to offload read traffic.

C.Enable Multi-AZ deployment for the DB instance.

D.Change the storage type to Provisioned IOPS.

E.Increase the allocated storage of the DB instance.

AnswersA, D, E

Aurora offers better write throughput and scalability compared to RDS MySQL.

Why this answer

Options A, C, and D are correct. Option A: Increasing storage IOPS directly improves write performance. Option C: Enabling Multi-AZ provides a standby that can be used for failover, but it does not improve write performance; however, the question asks for improving write performance, so this is incorrect.

Wait, Multi-AZ does not improve write performance; it adds availability. Option D: Adding read replicas does not help writes. Actually, let's re-evaluate.

The correct answer should be: A (increase IOPS), B (use provisioned IOPS), and E (switch to Aurora) or similar. But the instruction says exactly 3 correct. Let me correct: Option A (increase allocated storage) can improve IOPS because larger volumes have higher baseline IOPS.

Option B (enable Performance Insights) is for monitoring, not performance. Option C (Multi-AZ) does not improve write performance. Option D (read replica) does not help writes.

Option E (migrate to Aurora) improves write performance. But that's only two. Actually, increasing storage size (A) and migrating to Aurora (E) are two.

Another could be using provisioned IOPS. But the options don't have that. Let me adjust the options to make three correct.

I'll revise the options. Since the question is generated, I can choose the correct ones. Let's set: Options A, C, and E are correct.

A: Increase allocated storage (increases IOPS). C: Enable Multi-AZ (does not improve write performance, so not correct). Hmm.

Let me think: For write performance, you can: 1) Increase storage (more IOPS), 2) Use provisioned IOPS, 3) Use Aurora. So the options should include those. I'll modify the options to include provisioned IOPS.

For the sake of this response, I'll set the correct options as: A (increase storage), B (use provisioned IOPS), and E (migrate to Aurora). But I need to ensure the distractors are wrong. Let me rewrite the options properly.

Given the constraints, I'll produce a consistent answer. Actually, I have to follow the original options I wrote. Let me correct the explanation accordingly: For multi-select, I'll define options that make sense.

I'll set: Correct: A (increase storage), C (enable Multi-AZ - though it doesn't improve write performance, but it's a common misconception; wait, it does not. So I'll not include it. Better to set: A (increase storage), D (add read replica - no), that's not correct.

I'll restart: The correct three actions to improve write performance are: 1) Increase storage size (increases baseline IOPS), 2) Switch to provisioned IOPS (if not already), 3) Migrate to Amazon Aurora (better write performance). So in options, include those. Let me define options: A: Increase allocated storage, B: Enable Multi-AZ, C: Enable Performance Insights, D: Add a read replica, E: Migrate to Amazon Aurora.

Then correct: A, E, and maybe B? No, Multi-AZ does not improve write performance. So only A and E are two, need a third. Could be: Change instance class to a memory optimized instance? Not listed.

Alternatively, use Amazon RDS Proxy? Not listed. I'll add an option for provisioned IOPS. Let me redo the options: A: Increase allocated storage, B: Enable Multi-AZ, C: Change storage type to Provisioned IOPS, D: Add a read replica, E: Migrate to Amazon Aurora.

Then correct: A, C, E. That works. So I'll use that.

Explanation: Increasing storage (A) improves baseline IOPS, Provisioned IOPS (C) provides consistent performance, and Aurora (E) has better write throughput. Multi-AZ (B) does not improve writes, and read replicas (D) are for reads.

Full explanation →

1022

MCQeasy

A company uses AWS Organizations with a single member account for its development environment. The IT team wants to allow developers to launch EC2 instances only if they use a specific AMI ID. Which policy type should the company use to enforce this requirement?

A.Attach a service control policy (SCP) to the member account that denies EC2:RunInstances if the AMI ID is not approved.

B.Create an IAM policy that denies EC2:RunInstances if the AMI ID is not approved and attach it to all developer IAM roles.

C.Use AWS Config rules to detect noncompliant EC2 instances and automatically terminate them.

D.Use AWS Systems Manager to enforce the AMI ID requirement.

AnswerA

SCPs can restrict actions at the account level and are effective for preventive controls.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because SCPs can be used to restrict actions at the account level, including specifying allowed AMI IDs. Option B is wrong because IAM policies apply to users and roles within an account, but SCPs are more appropriate for organization-wide restrictions. Option C is wrong because AWS Config rules are detective, not preventive.

Option D is wrong because service control policies are the right mechanism.

Full explanation →

1023

MCQmedium

A company is migrating a legacy monolithic application to AWS. The application has a stateful session layer that uses local disk storage. The migration plan involves rehosting the application on Amazon EC2 instances. What architecture change should the company implement to ensure high availability and stateless application tiers?

A.Store session data in Amazon S3 with Transfer Acceleration.

B.Use Amazon RDS with Multi-AZ to store session data.

C.Use Amazon ElastiCache for session state management.

D.Attach Amazon EBS volumes to each EC2 instance for session persistence.

AnswerC

Amazon ElastiCache provides low-latency session caching, enabling stateless EC2 instances.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because using ElastiCache for session state offloads state from EC2 instances, making them stateless and allowing auto scaling. Option A is wrong because Amazon S3 is not suitable for low-latency session state. Option C is wrong because EBS snapshots are for backup, not session offloading.

Option D is wrong because Amazon RDS is for relational databases, not session caching.

Full explanation →

1024

MCQhard

A company is modernizing a legacy application by refactoring it into microservices. The application uses a monolithic Oracle database. The team wants to use Amazon RDS for Oracle as the migration target. Which migration approach minimizes risk and downtime?

A.Create a new RDS instance and use AWS SCT to convert the schema, then cutover after testing.

B.Use the strangler fig pattern to incrementally migrate functionality to new microservices, each with its own database.

C.Migrate the entire database at once using AWS DMS with ongoing replication.

D.Rewrite the application as microservices on AWS and then migrate the database.

AnswerB

Strangler fig pattern minimizes risk by migrating in small increments.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because the strangler fig pattern allows gradual migration. Option A is wrong because big bang migration is high risk. Option C is wrong because the phased approach may work but is broader; strangler fig is specific to microservices.

Option D is wrong because rewriting all at once is high risk.

Full explanation →

1025

MCQeasy

A company wants to decouple a front-end web application from a backend processing service to improve scalability. Which AWS service should be used to send tasks from the web tier to the processing tier?

A.Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)

B.Amazon EventBridge

C.Amazon Kinesis Data Streams

D.Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS)

AnswerD

SQS is a message queue that decouples components and allows asynchronous processing.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because Amazon SQS is a fully managed message queue that decouples application components. Option B is wrong because SNS is pub/sub, not a queue. Option C is wrong because Kinesis is for streaming data.

Option D is wrong because EventBridge is for event buses, not simple task queues.

Full explanation →

1026

MCQhard

A company has a monolithic application running on a single Amazon EC2 instance. The application consists of a web server and a backend worker process. The company wants to migrate to a microservices architecture using containers on Amazon ECS with Fargate. The solutions architect needs to design a solution that minimizes downtime during the migration. Which approach should the solutions architect recommend?

A.Create a Docker image of the entire monolithic application and run it on ECS with Fargate.

B.Use a strangler fig pattern: gradually replace parts of the monolith with microservices, routing traffic via an Application Load Balancer.

C.Run the monolithic application on the same EC2 instance as the new microservices, using different ports.

D.Refactor the entire application into microservices, then deploy all microservices at once on ECS.

AnswerB

This incremental approach minimizes downtime and risk, allowing both old and new to coexist.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because a strangler fig pattern allows incremental migration of functionality from the monolith to microservices, with the ALB routing traffic to either the monolith or new services. This minimizes downtime because the old application remains operational while pieces are moved. Option A is wrong because a lift-and-shift of the entire application into a single container does not decompose it into microservices.

Option B is wrong because refactoring the entire application at once introduces significant risk and downtime. Option C is wrong because running both the monolith and new services on the same instance but on different ports does not inherently minimize downtime and complicates routing.

Full explanation →

1027

MCQhard

A company is designing a disaster recovery solution for a critical application running on Amazon EC2. The application uses an Amazon RDS for MySQL database. The recovery time objective (RTO) is 15 minutes, and the recovery point objective (RPO) is 1 hour. The primary region is us-east-1, and the secondary region is us-west-2. Which solution meets the requirements with the LOWEST cost?

A.Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) for continuous replication to us-west-2

B.Use a cross-region read replica in us-west-2 with MySQL asynchronous replication

C.Use automated backups and restore to us-west-2 when needed

D.Use a Multi-AZ deployment in us-east-1 and failover to a standby instance

AnswerB

Read replica provides near real-time replication and fast promotion.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because a cross-region read replica with MySQL asynchronous replication provides an RPO of seconds to minutes and can be promoted quickly, meeting RTO and RPO at low cost. Option B is incorrect because Database Migration Service is not designed for real-time replication. Option C is incorrect because Multi-AZ is for high availability within a region, not cross-region DR.

Option D is incorrect because automated backups have a restore time longer than 15 minutes typically.

Full explanation →

1028

MCQhard

A company is migrating a monolithic application to AWS and wants to modernize it into microservices. The application currently uses a single relational database. Which migration strategy is most appropriate to minimize risk while starting the modernization process?

A.Incremental migration using the Strangler Fig pattern

B.Big bang migration of the entire application to containers

C.Replatform to Amazon RDS for MySQL

D.Rehost the application using AWS VM Import/Export

AnswerA

The Strangler Fig pattern allows gradual replacement of monolith components with microservices, minimizing risk.

Why this answer

Option B (Strangler Fig pattern) is correct as it allows incremental replacement of monolithic components with microservices, reducing risk. Option A (big bang) is risky. Option C (rehost) doesn't modernize.

Option D (replatform) still keeps monolith.

Full explanation →

1029

MCQmedium

A company has a multi-account AWS environment with a central network account and multiple workload accounts. They want to share a VPC subnet in the network account with the workload accounts so that they can launch EC2 instances directly into the shared subnet. The network team has created a VPC with a subnet and shared it using AWS Resource Access Manager (RAM) with the workload accounts. However, the workload accounts cannot see the shared subnet when launching EC2 instances. What is the most likely cause?

A.The workload accounts have not accepted the resource share invitation.

B.The workload accounts have a default VPC that conflicts with the shared subnet.

C.The workload accounts do not have the necessary IAM permissions to use shared subnets.

D.The subnet is in a different AWS Region than the workload accounts.

AnswerA

RAM requires acceptance before resources appear.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because RAM requires an explicit acceptance of the resource share by the workload accounts. Until they accept, the subnet is not visible. Option B is wrong because IAM permissions are needed but the issue is acceptance.

Option C is wrong because sharing is not limited to the same region. Option D is wrong because default VPC does not affect shared subnets.

Full explanation →

1030

MCQmedium

A company uses AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager to patch Amazon EC2 instances. After a patching operation, some instances fail to report their compliance status. What is the MOST efficient way to identify the cause of the failure?

A.Run a script on each instance to list missing patches.

B.Use Systems Manager Inventory to query patch compliance details and identify non-compliant instances.

C.Use the Patch Manager dashboard in the AWS Management Console.

D.Check the EC2 console for each instance's patch status.

AnswerB

Inventory provides detailed compliance data that can be queried.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because Systems Manager Inventory collects and queries patch compliance data. Option B is wrong because it only shows state, not failures. Option C is wrong because Patch Manager does not have a dashboard.

Option D is wrong because it's not about missing patches.

Full explanation →

1031

MCQeasy

A company is using AWS CloudTrail to log all API activity. The security team wants to be alerted when an IAM user creates a new access key. What is the simplest way to achieve this?

A.Configure an S3 event notification on the CloudTrail log bucket to trigger a Lambda function.

B.Set up a CloudTrail trail with log file validation enabled.

C.Use AWS Config to create a rule that checks for access keys.

D.Create an Amazon EventBridge rule that matches the 'CreateAccessKey' API call and sends an SNS notification.

AnswerD

EventBridge can filter CloudTrail events and trigger actions.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because CloudWatch Events (now Amazon EventBridge) can match IAM CreateAccessKey events and trigger a notification. Option B is wrong because S3 events are for object-level operations, not API calls. Option C is wrong because CloudTrail logs events but doesn't natively send alerts.

Option D is wrong because Config rules evaluate resource configurations, not API calls.

Full explanation →

1032

MCQmedium

A company has a centralized logging account and multiple application accounts. All VPC Flow Logs are sent to a central S3 bucket in the logging account. The security team needs to analyze the logs using Amazon Athena. The team must ensure queries are cost-effective and return results quickly for recent logs. Which configuration should be used?

A.Convert the logs to Parquet format using AWS Glue and store them in the same bucket.

B.Use S3 lifecycle policies to transition logs to S3 Glacier after 7 days and query with Athena.

C.Partition the S3 bucket by date (e.g., year/month/day) and use Athena partition projection.

D.Use Athena with federated query to scan logs directly from the application accounts.

AnswerC

Correct: Partitioning reduces data scanned.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because partitioning the S3 bucket by date (e.g., year/month/day) and using Athena partition projection allows Athena to automatically discover and prune partitions without manual metadata management. This reduces the amount of data scanned per query, lowering costs and improving query speed for recent logs. Partition projection is serverless and eliminates the need for Glue crawlers or Hive-style partition loading, making it ideal for time-series data like VPC Flow Logs.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates may confuse Athena’s ability to query compressed formats (like Parquet) with the need for partitioning, or mistakenly believe that S3 Glacier can be queried by Athena, when in fact Athena requires objects to be in S3 Standard, Intelligent-Tiering, or Glacier Instant Retrieval (not Glacier or Glacier Deep Archive).

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because converting logs to Parquet format with AWS Glue improves compression and query performance, but it does not address the need to quickly query recent logs without scanning all historical data; partitioning is still required for cost-effective pruning. Option B is wrong because transitioning logs to S3 Glacier after 7 days makes them inaccessible to Athena, as Athena cannot query data stored in Glacier or Glacier Deep Archive storage classes. Option D is wrong because Athena federated query is designed to query data in external databases (e.g., RDS, DynamoDB) or on-premises sources, not to scan logs directly from S3 buckets in other accounts; cross-account S3 access is handled via bucket policies, not federated query.

Full explanation →

1033

MCQmedium

A company is migrating its on-premises data warehouse to Amazon Redshift. The data warehouse is currently running on a single large server with 10 TB of data. The company wants to minimize downtime and ensure data consistency. Which AWS service should the architect use to perform the migration?

A.AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS)

B.Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration

C.AWS Glue

D.AWS Snowball Edge

AnswerA

AWS DMS supports continuous replication from on-premises sources to Redshift, minimizing downtime.

Why this answer

AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) can migrate data from on-premises databases to Amazon Redshift with minimal downtime. AWS Snowball is for offline transfer and would cause more downtime. AWS Glue is for ETL, not direct migration.

S3 Transfer Acceleration is for S3 uploads.

Full explanation →

1034

MCQmedium

A company runs a critical web application on EC2 instances behind an ALB. The application stores session data in an ElastiCache Redis cluster. During a recent outage, the Redis cluster failed and all active sessions were lost, causing users to be logged out. Which solution would provide the HIGHEST availability for session data?

A.Enable Cluster Mode and deploy Redis in Multi-AZ with replicas.

B.Deploy a single-node Redis cluster with automatic backups.

C.Disable Redis persistence to improve performance.

D.Use a larger Redis instance type to handle more connections.

AnswerA

Multi-AZ with replicas provides automatic failover and high availability.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because ElastiCache for Redis with Cluster Mode enabled and Multi-AZ provides automatic failover and data replication across Availability Zones. Option A is wrong because a single-node cluster has no redundancy. Option B is wrong because increasing instance size does not provide failover.

Option C is wrong because disabling persistence reduces durability.

Full explanation →

1035

MCQhard

A company uses AWS Organizations and has shared a subnet from the VPC shown in the exhibit using AWS Resource Access Manager (RAM). A workload account launches an EC2 instance in the shared subnet. The instance needs to communicate with an RDS database in a different private subnet within the same VPC. What additional configuration is required?

A.The workload account must create a route table entry in the shared VPC to allow communication.

B.The workload account must configure security groups for the EC2 instance to allow traffic to the RDS database's security group.

C.Establish a VPC peering connection between the workload account's VPC and the shared VPC.

D.Attach an AWS Transit Gateway to both VPCs to enable communication.

AnswerB

Security groups are managed by the account that owns the resource.

Why this answer

Option C is correct. When a subnet is shared, the owner account manages the route tables and network ACLs, but the participant account cannot modify them. However, the participant account can use security groups to control traffic to/from its instances.

Therefore, the workload account must configure security groups to allow traffic between the EC2 instance and the RDS database. Option A is wrong because VPC peering is not needed; the VPC is already shared. Option B is wrong because the route table is managed by the owner, not the participant.

Option D is wrong because transit gateway is not needed.

Full explanation →

1036

MCQmedium

A company is migrating a legacy on-premises .NET application to AWS. The application uses a SQL Server database. The company wants to minimize code changes and reduce licensing costs. Which migration strategy should the company choose?

A.Rebuild the application using AWS Lambda and Amazon RDS for MySQL.

B.Rehost the application on Amazon EC2 with SQL Server or use Amazon RDS for SQL Server with license-included pricing.

C.Replatform the application to use Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL.

D.Refactor the application to use Amazon DynamoDB.

AnswerB

Minimal code changes and reduces licensing costs via license-included option.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because rehosting (lift-and-shift) with Amazon RDS for SQL Server minimizes code changes and allows using license-included pricing. Option A is wrong because replatforming to Amazon Aurora would require code changes. Option B is wrong because refactoring to DynamoDB would require significant code changes.

Option D is wrong because rebuilding on Lambda would be a full re-architecture.

Full explanation →

1037

MCQhard

A multinational company is implementing AWS Organizations to manage multiple accounts across business units. The security team requires that all IAM users in member accounts must use a specific password policy and must have MFA enabled. Which combination of actions should the company take to enforce these requirements?

A.Use an SCP to enforce a specific password policy and require MFA across all accounts.

B.Use AWS Config rules to automatically set the password policy and enable MFA for all users.

C.Use an SCP to deny changes to the password policy and to deny deactivation of MFA devices. Use AWS Config rules to detect non-compliant users.

D.Use AWS CloudTrail to monitor password policy changes and MFA status, and trigger an automatic remediation.

AnswerC

SCPs can block actions that modify the password policy or deactivate MFA, and AWS Config can detect non-compliant users.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because SCPs can deny changes to the password policy and deny deactivation of MFA devices, preventing users from weakening security controls. AWS Config rules then detect non-compliant users (e.g., those without MFA or with a non-compliant password policy), allowing the security team to trigger remediation or alerts. SCPs alone cannot enforce a specific password policy or enable MFA; they only block actions, so Config rules are needed for detection and enforcement.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates assume SCPs can enforce configurations like password policies or MFA, but SCPs only deny or allow actions, not set or enable features, so detection and remediation require AWS Config or similar services.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because SCPs cannot enforce a specific password policy or require MFA; they can only deny or allow actions, not set configurations or enable features. Option B is wrong because AWS Config rules can detect non-compliance but cannot automatically set a password policy or enable MFA for users; they only evaluate and report. Option D is wrong because AWS CloudTrail only logs API calls and does not provide enforcement or remediation; automatic remediation would require additional services like AWS Config with auto-remediation or Lambda, not CloudTrail alone.

Full explanation →

1038

MCQhard

A company uses AWS Lambda functions within a VPC to process data from an Amazon SQS queue. The Lambda functions frequently timeout with the error 'Task timed out after 3.00 seconds'. The functions perform database operations on an RDS instance in the same VPC. The average database query takes 2 seconds. What is the MOST likely cause of the timeouts?

A.The Lambda function does not have the required VPC permissions to access the RDS instance.

B.The VPC does not have a NAT gateway, so the Lambda function cannot poll the SQS queue.

C.The Lambda function timeout should be increased to accommodate database query time.

D.The RDS instance is under-provisioned and causing slow queries.

AnswerB

Lambda in a VPC needs a NAT gateway to access public endpoints like SQS; without it, SQS polling fails, causing timeouts.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because Lambda functions in a VPC require a NAT gateway or VPC endpoints to access the SQS API, which is outside the VPC. Without a NAT gateway, the function cannot poll the SQS queue, causing timeouts. Option A is wrong because Lambda can access RDS within the same VPC without issues.

Option B is wrong because 3-second timeout should be sufficient for a 2-second query if network is fine. Option C is wrong because the RDS instance size does not affect network connectivity to SQS.

Full explanation →

1039

MCQhard

A company is migrating a monolithic application to microservices on Amazon ECS. The application uses a legacy database that does not support distributed transactions. The team wants to ensure data consistency across services. Which solution is BEST for achieving eventual consistency with minimal code changes?

A.Use Amazon DynamoDB transactions across all services.

B.Modify the legacy database to support two-phase commit.

C.Use Amazon SQS to queue all database writes and process them sequentially.

D.Implement the Saga pattern using AWS Step Functions.

AnswerD

Step Functions can orchestrate a saga, handling failures and compensating transactions.

Why this answer

Implementing the Saga pattern with AWS Step Functions allows orchestrating distributed transactions across services, managing rollbacks and compensating actions. This is the best approach for eventual consistency with minimal code changes.

Full explanation →

1040

MCQmedium

A multinational company is using AWS Organizations with multiple accounts. The security team requires that all S3 buckets across the organization block public access. What is the MOST efficient way to enforce this requirement?

A.Use AWS Config rules to detect and remediate public buckets in each account.

B.Create a CloudFormation StackSet to deploy bucket policies in every account.

C.Use IAM roles to restrict users from modifying bucket public access settings.

D.Apply an SCP to the root OU that denies s3:PutBucketPublicAccessBlock actions.

AnswerD

SCPs prevent the action across all accounts in the OU.

Why this answer

Using an SCP at the root OU is the most efficient way to enforce the policy across all accounts, as it applies to all member accounts and cannot be overridden by account administrators. Option A is wrong because SCPs can enforce restrictions. Option B is wrong because it would require per-account changes.

Option D is wrong because bucket policies are account-specific and do not enforce across accounts.

Full explanation →

1041

MCQmedium

A company is migrating a critical application to AWS and needs to ensure high availability across two Availability Zones. The application runs on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The database is an on-premises SQL Server that will be migrated later. Which architecture provides high availability for the application tier during the migration?

A.Deploy EC2 instances in two AZs behind an ALB with cross-zone load balancing enabled.

B.Deploy EC2 instances in a single AZ with an Auto Scaling group.

C.Deploy EC2 instances in two AZs behind a Network Load Balancer (NLB).

D.Use Amazon Route 53 weighted routing to distribute traffic to instances in two AZs.

AnswerA

ALB with instances in two AZs provides high availability.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because ALB distributes traffic to instances in two AZs. Option B is wrong because a single AZ is not highly available. Option C is wrong because a Network Load Balancer is for TCP/UDP, not HTTP.

Option D is wrong because Route 53 alone does not provide load balancing.

Full explanation →

1042

MCQhard

A media company runs a video transcoding pipeline on AWS using Amazon EC2 Spot Instances. The pipeline uses a custom AMI with pre-installed software. The operations team notices that the latest AMI is not always used when new instances launch, causing inconsistent transcoding results. What should the team do to ensure that all new Spot Instances use the latest AMI?

A.Create a new launch configuration each time a new AMI is released and associate it with the Auto Scaling group.

B.Use AWS CloudFormation to update the stack with the new AMI ID and then manually trigger a rolling update.

C.Manually update the AMI ID in the EC2 Auto Scaling group configuration every time a new AMI is released.

D.Use an EC2 Auto Scaling group with a launch template that dynamically references the latest AMI ID from AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store.

AnswerD

This allows automatic retrieval of the latest AMI ID at launch time.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling with a launch template can reference the latest AMI ID using SSM Parameter Store. Option B is wrong because updating the AMI ID in the Auto Scaling group requires manual intervention. Option C is wrong because it does not automatically update the AMI.

Option D is wrong because CloudFormation does not automatically update the AMI.

Full explanation →

1043

MCQmedium

A company is migrating a legacy application to AWS using the 7 Rs migration strategy. The application is a monolithic Java application running on a single on-premises server with a MySQL database. The company wants to reduce operational overhead and improve scalability. The development team has already containerized the application and tested it locally. The company wants to run the containerized application on AWS without managing the underlying infrastructure. Which AWS service should the company use to deploy the containerized application?

A.Amazon ECS with AWS Fargate launch type

B.Amazon EKS with managed node groups

C.Amazon EC2 with Docker installed

D.Amazon Lightsail containers

AnswerA

Fargate is serverless, no infrastructure to manage, and integrates with ECS.

Why this answer

Option C is correct: AWS Fargate is a serverless compute engine for containers, eliminating infrastructure management. Option A (EC2) requires managing instances. Option B (EKS) requires managing the control plane.

Option D (Lightsail) is not container-native.

Full explanation →

1044

Multi-Selectmedium

A company stores sensitive data in an S3 bucket. The security team requires that all data be encrypted at rest and that the encryption keys be rotated automatically every year. The company also needs to audit who accessed the key and when. Which THREE services should the solutions architect use to meet these requirements?

Select 3 answers

A.S3 server-side encryption with AWS KMS (SSE-KMS).

B.AWS CloudTrail to log KMS Decrypt and GenerateDataKey events.

C.AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to control access to the keys.

D.AWS Key Management Service (KMS) with automatic key rotation enabled.

E.S3 server-side encryption with S3-managed keys (SSE-S3).

AnswersA, B, D

SSE-KMS uses KMS keys for encryption, enabling rotation and auditing.

Why this answer

Options A, C, and D are correct. AWS KMS provides managed keys with automatic annual rotation. AWS CloudTrail logs KMS API calls for auditing.

S3 uses server-side encryption with KMS keys (SSE-KMS). Option B is wrong because S3 SSE-S3 uses S3-managed keys, not customer-controlled. Option E is wrong because IAM is for access control, not encryption key management.

Full explanation →

1045

MCQhard

An IAM policy is attached to an IAM user. The user reports being unable to download objects from the bucket 'example-bucket' when connecting from their office IP address 203.0.113.5. What is the most likely reason?

A.The user's IP address is not in the allowed range.

B.The condition key 'aws:SourceIp' is invalid.

C.The resource ARN is incorrect.

D.The s3:GetObject action is misspelled.

AnswerA

The condition restricts access to 192.0.2.0/24.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because the policy only allows access from the IP range 192.0.2.0/24, and the user's IP 203.0.113.5 is not in that range. Option A is wrong because the resource is correct. Option C is wrong because the action is correct.

Option D is wrong because the condition is valid.

Full explanation →

1046

MCQeasy

A company wants to design a cost-effective solution to store infrequently accessed log files for 7 years. The logs are generated daily and must be available for retrieval within 24 hours. Which Amazon S3 storage class should be used?

A.S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access

B.S3 Intelligent-Tiering

C.S3 Glacier Deep Archive

D.S3 Standard

AnswerC

Lowest cost with 12-24 hour retrieval.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because S3 Glacier Deep Archive is the lowest-cost storage for long-term archival with retrieval times of 12-24 hours. Option A is incorrect because S3 Standard is for frequently accessed data. Option C is incorrect because S3 Intelligent-Tiering is for unknown access patterns.

Option D is incorrect because S3 One Zone-IA is for infrequent access but not long-term archive.

Full explanation →

1047

MCQeasy

A company is designing a solution to capture changes from an Amazon RDS database and stream them to a data lake. Which AWS service should be used to capture database changes in real time?

A.AWS Glue with streaming ETL

B.AWS Lambda with database polling

C.Amazon Kinesis Data Streams with a custom producer

D.AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with change data capture (CDC)

AnswerD

DMS can capture ongoing changes from RDS.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because AWS DMS with change data capture (CDC) can capture ongoing changes from RDS. Option A (Kinesis Data Streams) needs a producer. Option C (Lambda) can poll, but DMS is purpose-built.

Option D (Glue) is for ETL, not real-time capture.

Full explanation →

1048

MCQeasy

A company uses AWS CodePipeline to deploy a static website to an S3 bucket. The pipeline includes a source stage from GitHub and a deploy stage that syncs the S3 bucket. Recently, the deployment has been failing intermittently with the error 'Access Denied' when the pipeline tries to write to the S3 bucket. The bucket policy allows the pipeline's service role to perform s3:PutObject. The service role has the following IAM policy attached: { 'Effect': 'Allow', 'Action': 's3:PutObject', 'Resource': 'arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket/*' }. What is the MOST likely cause of the failure?

A.The S3 bucket has default encryption enabled.

B.The pipeline is in a VPC without an S3 VPC endpoint.

C.The pipeline's source stage is not configured with Git credentials.

D.The bucket has a bucket policy that denies the pipeline's service role.

AnswerD

An explicit deny in the bucket policy overrides the IAM allow.

Why this answer

Option A is correct. The bucket policy might deny access even if the IAM role allows it, because bucket policies are evaluated in addition to IAM policies. Option B is wrong because the pipeline uses the service role, not Git credentials.

Option C is wrong because there is no mention of encryption. Option D is wrong because the error is Access Denied, not a network issue.

Full explanation →

1049

MCQhard

A company is designing a new microservices platform on AWS. The platform consists of 50 microservices, each running in its own Amazon ECS service on AWS Fargate. The services communicate via REST APIs. The company wants to implement a service mesh to handle traffic routing, observability, and security (mTLS). They also need to meet compliance requirements that all traffic between services must be encrypted and logged. The solution must be fully managed and reduce operational overhead. After implementing the service mesh, the operations team notices that latency between services has increased by 20%, and some services are experiencing connection timeouts. The team has enabled mTLS and distributed tracing. Which course of action should the team take to diagnose and resolve the latency issues?

A.Check the Envoy proxy resource limits in the App Mesh configuration and increase the CPU and memory allocated to the sidecar proxies.

B.Use AWS Cloud Map for service discovery instead of App Mesh.

C.Replace the service mesh with VPC peering and security groups, and use direct HTTP calls.

D.Convert the microservices to AWS Lambda functions and use API Gateway.

AnswerA

Under-provisioned sidecars can cause latency and timeouts.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because AWS App Mesh can inject Envoy sidecar proxies, and increasing the proxy resources can reduce latency. Option B (replacing with VPC peering) removes the service mesh benefits. Option C (using Cloud Map) does not address latency.

Option D (converting to Lambda) is a major redesign.

Full explanation →

1050

Multi-Selecthard

A company runs a web application on Amazon ECS with Fargate launch type. The application is behind an Application Load Balancer. During traffic spikes, the application becomes slow. The team suspects that the ECS service is not scaling fast enough. Which THREE actions should the team take to improve the scalability? (Choose three.)

Select 3 answers

A.Decrease the number of subnets in the VPC.

B.Decrease the scale-in and scale-out cooldown periods.

C.Decrease the ALB idle timeout.

D.Increase the maximum number of tasks in the ECS service.

E.Increase the target value for the scaling metric (e.g., CPU utilization).

AnswersB, D, E

Shorter cooldowns allow scaling actions to happen more frequently.

Why this answer

Options A, C, and E are correct. Option A: Increasing the number of tasks per service allows handling more concurrent requests. Option C: Decreasing the cooldown period allows faster scaling.

Option E: Increasing the target value for the scaling metric makes scaling more aggressive. Option B is wrong because decreasing the number of subnets reduces capacity. Option D is wrong because decreasing the ALB idle timeout does not affect scaling.

Full explanation →

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