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AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional SAP-C02 (SAP-C02) — Questions 1276–1350

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

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1276

MCQmedium

A company runs a web application on Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). They want to implement a blue/green deployment strategy with minimal impact on users. Which approach should they use?

A.Create a new target group with the green instances. Modify the ALB listener rule to forward traffic to the new target group.

B.Stop all instances, launch new instances with the new version, and update the target group.

C.Update the existing target group's instances to the new version, one at a time.

D.Create a new ALB and update DNS to point to the new ALB.

AnswerA

This is the standard blue/green deployment with ALB.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because blue/green deployment with an ALB is achieved by creating a new target group for the green instances and modifying the ALB listener rule to forward traffic to the new target group. This allows instant traffic shifting with zero downtime, as the ALB can route traffic between target groups without changing the DNS or creating a new ALB. The blue (old) target group remains available for instant rollback if needed.

Exam trap

The trap here is confusing blue/green deployment with rolling updates or assuming that a new ALB and DNS change are required, when in fact ALB listener rule modifications provide immediate traffic switching without DNS propagation delays.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option B is wrong because stopping all instances causes complete downtime, violating the requirement for minimal impact on users. Option C is wrong because updating instances one at a time in the existing target group is a rolling update strategy, not a blue/green deployment; it does not maintain two separate environments for instant switchover. Option D is wrong because creating a new ALB and updating DNS introduces DNS propagation delays and potential disruption, whereas blue/green with ALB should leverage listener rule changes for immediate traffic shift.

Full explanation →

1277

MCQhard

A company has a global AWS environment with multiple VPCs in different regions. The company uses AWS Transit Gateway to connect VPCs in the same region, but they need to interconnect VPCs across regions. The network team wants a solution that provides transitive routing across regions with minimal latency and operational overhead. Which solution should be implemented?

A.Set up a VPN connection between Transit Gateways in different regions.

B.Use AWS Direct Connect to connect the Transit Gateways in different regions.

C.Create VPC peering connections between all VPCs in different regions.

D.Use Transit Gateway peering attachments between Transit Gateways in different regions.

AnswerD

Transit Gateway peering provides transitive routing across regions with low latency.

Why this answer

Transit Gateway peering attachments enable transitive routing between Transit Gateways in different AWS regions, providing low-latency connectivity over the AWS global network without requiring VPN or Direct Connect. This solution minimizes operational overhead because AWS manages the peering connection and route propagation automatically, allowing VPCs attached to different Transit Gateways to communicate across regions.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates may confuse Transit Gateway peering with VPN or Direct Connect, assuming that cross-region connectivity requires a VPN or dedicated line, but AWS provides a native, managed peering feature that is simpler and more performant for inter-region Transit Gateway connectivity.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because setting up a VPN connection between Transit Gateways introduces additional latency, complexity, and operational overhead due to managing VPN tunnels and encryption endpoints, and it does not leverage the AWS global backbone for optimal performance. Option B is wrong because AWS Direct Connect is a dedicated on-premises connection and cannot be used to directly interconnect Transit Gateways across regions; it would require additional routing and does not provide transitive routing between regions. Option C is wrong because VPC peering does not support transitive routing—each peering connection is a one-to-one relationship, so to connect all VPCs across regions you would need a full mesh of peering connections, which is not scalable and incurs high operational overhead.

Full explanation →

1278

Multi-Selectmedium

A company is designing a new cloud-native application that will run on Amazon ECS with Fargate. The application must store logs centrally for analysis. Which TWO services can be used to collect and analyze logs from ECS Fargate tasks?

Select 2 answers

A.Amazon CloudWatch Logs

B.AWS FireLens (Fluent Bit)

C.Amazon S3

D.AWS CloudTrail

E.Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics

AnswersA, B

ECS can send logs to CloudWatch Logs using the awslogs log driver.

Why this answer

Option A and Option C are correct. CloudWatch Logs can be used with the awslogs driver to collect logs. FireLens (using Fluent Bit) can also collect and forward logs.

Option B is wrong because Kinesis Data Analytics is for streaming analytics, not log collection. Option D is wrong because S3 is a storage service, not a log analysis service. Option E is wrong because CloudTrail captures API calls, not application logs.

Full explanation →

1279

MCQmedium

A company runs a web application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group across three Availability Zones. The application writes logs to local instance storage. The company wants to centralize log collection and ensure logs are retained even if instances are terminated. The current solution uses Amazon CloudWatch Logs agent, but log streams are frequently missing when instances are replaced. What should the company do to ensure complete log collection?

A.Configure the CloudWatch agent to use a persistent buffer on an EBS volume.

B.Configure an S3 Lifecycle policy to transition logs to S3 Glacier.

C.Use the CloudWatch agent to send logs directly to Amazon S3.

D.Attach an EBS volume to each instance and store logs there.

AnswerA

Persistent buffer ensures logs are sent before instance termination.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because the CloudWatch agent can be configured to buffer logs to disk, preventing data loss during instance termination. Option A is incorrect because EBS volumes do not persist when an instance is terminated unless termination protection is enabled, but logs are on instance store. Option B is incorrect because S3 Lifecycle does not affect CloudWatch log retention.

Option C is incorrect because CloudWatch agent does not export to S3 directly without additional configuration.

Full explanation →

1280

Multi-Selectmedium

A company is setting up a new AWS Organization and wants to implement a data perimeter to ensure that data can only be accessed from approved network locations. Which TWO actions should the company take?

Select 2 answers

A.Implement an S3 bucket policy that restricts access based on the aws:SourceVpce condition key.

B.Create an IAM policy in each account that denies access unless the request comes from the approved IP range.

C.Use AWS PrivateLink to access all AWS services from within the VPC.

D.Create a service control policy (SCP) that denies access to resources unless the request originates from the approved IP address range.

E.Use AWS Resource Access Manager to share resources with approved accounts only.

AnswersA, D

Restricts access to requests from specific VPC endpoints.

Why this answer

Options B and D are correct. B: An SCP with a condition on aws:SourceIp restricts access based on IP address across all accounts. D: An S3 bucket policy with a condition on aws:SourceVpce restricts access to specific VPC endpoints.

Option A is wrong because it's not centralized. Option C is wrong because it restricts service but not network location. Option E is wrong because it restricts actions but not network.

Full explanation →

1281

Multi-Selecthard

A company is migrating a monolithic application to a microservices architecture on Amazon ECS. The application uses a shared MySQL database. Which THREE strategies should the company use to modernize the data layer?

Select 3 answers

A.Migrate all data to Amazon DynamoDB.

B.Use database per service pattern.

C.Keep a single RDS instance with multiple schemas.

D.Use Amazon RDS read replicas to offload read queries.

E.Implement CQRS and event sourcing.

AnswersB, D, E

Each microservice gets its own database.

Why this answer

Option A is correct for splitting the database. Option C is correct for implementing CQRS. Option E is correct for using read replicas to offload reads.

Option B is wrong because a single RDS instance doesn't decompose the monolith. Option D is wrong because DynamoDB may not suit all workloads.

Full explanation →

1282

MCQhard

A company is migrating a critical 3-tier application to AWS. The application consists of a web tier, an application tier, and a PostgreSQL database. The web and application tiers are stateless and run on Linux. The company has deployed the web tier on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB) across two Availability Zones. The application tier is deployed on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group across two Availability Zones. The PostgreSQL database is migrated to Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL with Multi-AZ deployment. The application uses sticky sessions (session affinity) to maintain user sessions on the web tier. After migration, users report that they are frequently logged out and lose session data. The web tier logs show that requests are being routed to different web instances. What is the MOST likely cause of this issue?

A.The target group for the web tier does not have sticky sessions (session affinity) enabled

B.The ALB is configured to disable cross-zone load balancing, causing uneven traffic distribution

C.The idle timeout of the ALB is set too low, causing sessions to expire

D.The web tier should use a Network Load Balancer (NLB) instead of an ALB for sticky sessions

AnswerA

Sticky sessions ensure requests from a user are routed to the same instance; without it, subsequent requests may go to different instances, losing session data.

Why this answer

Option B is correct: Sticky sessions must be enabled on the ALB target group to ensure requests from a user are sent to the same web instance. Option A (increased timeouts) might help but is not the root cause. Option C (disable cross-zone load balancing) would not solve session affinity across AZs.

Option D (switch to NLB) is not necessary and NLB does not support HTTP features.

Full explanation →

1283

MCQhard

A company runs a web application on Amazon ECS with Fargate launch type behind an Application Load Balancer. The application stores session state in a local file system on the container. Users report that they are frequently logged out and lose session data. What is the most likely cause?

A.ECS tasks are being replaced by the service scheduler during deployments or health checks.

B.The security group for the ECS tasks is blocking inbound traffic from the ALB.

C.The ECS service is configured to scale out, causing new tasks to be created without existing session data.

D.The Application Load Balancer is not configured with sticky sessions.

AnswerA

Fargate tasks are ephemeral; replacement causes loss of local session data.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because Fargate tasks are ephemeral; they can be replaced due to deployments or health checks, causing loss of local session data. Option A is wrong because ALB sticky sessions are irrelevant if the container itself is replaced. Option C is wrong because scaling out does not cause individual container replacement.

Option D is wrong because the issue is about session persistence, not security groups.

Full explanation →

1284

MCQeasy

A company wants to decouple a microservices architecture where one service (producer) sends events to another service (consumer). The producer can generate bursts of events, and the consumer processes them in batches. The solution must be serverless and handle potential consumer failures without losing events. Which AWS service should be used as the message broker?

A.Amazon SNS

B.Amazon Kinesis Data Streams

C.Amazon EventBridge

D.Amazon SQS

AnswerD

SQS provides a durable, serverless queue that decouples producers and consumers, supports batch processing, and can retain messages on failure.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because Amazon SQS is a serverless message queue that can buffer bursts and retain messages until the consumer processes them, with dead-letter queues for failures. Option B is wrong because Amazon SNS pushes messages to subscribers and does not support polling or batch processing. Option C is wrong because Kinesis Data Streams is for real-time streaming, not simple decoupling with batch processing.

Option D is wrong because EventBridge is for event routing, not a message queue.

Full explanation →

1285

MCQhard

A company runs a critical application on Amazon ECS with Fargate launch type. The application experiences intermittent latency spikes. CloudWatch metrics show high CPU utilization on tasks during these spikes. The current task definition has 1 vCPU and 2 GB memory. Which improvement will most effectively reduce latency without over-provisioning?

A.Increase the number of tasks (desired count) to distribute the load.

B.Increase the vCPU to 2 while keeping 2 GB memory.

C.Increase both memory and vCPU to 4 GB and 2 vCPUs.

D.Increase the memory to 4 GB while keeping 1 vCPU.

AnswerC

Balanced increase addresses both CPU and memory constraints.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because increasing memory and vCPU together can improve performance for CPU-bound tasks. Option A is wrong because increasing only memory doesn't address CPU. Option B is wrong because increasing only vCPU might not be enough if memory is also a bottleneck.

Option D is wrong because scaling horizontally may not reduce latency for a single request if the task itself is underpowered.

Full explanation →

1286

Multi-Selectmedium

A company is using AWS Lambda functions behind an Amazon API Gateway REST API. The Lambda functions are written in Python and use the boto3 SDK to interact with DynamoDB. Recently, the company has observed increased latency and occasional 5xx errors from the API. The operations team wants to implement continuous improvements. Which TWO actions should be taken to improve performance and reliability? (Choose 2)

Select 2 answers

A.Set Lambda reserved concurrency to 5 for each function.

B.Configure provisioned concurrency for all Lambda functions.

C.Enable API Gateway caching with a TTL of 60 seconds.

D.Increase the Lambda function timeout to 30 seconds.

E.Enable DynamoDB auto scaling for the table.

AnswersC, E

Caching reduces the number of requests reaching Lambda and DynamoDB, improving latency and reducing load.

Why this answer

Option B: Enabling DynamoDB auto scaling adjusts capacity based on traffic patterns, reducing throttling-related errors. Option C: Configuring API Gateway caching reduces the load on Lambda and DynamoDB for repeated requests. Option A: Increasing Lambda timeout may not address root cause and could mask issues.

Option D: Provisioned concurrency helps with cold starts but not with DynamoDB throttling. Option E: Lambda reserved concurrency limits concurrency, which could worsen throttling.

Full explanation →

1287

MCQeasy

A company is planning a hybrid cloud migration and needs to establish a dedicated network connection between its on-premises data center and AWS with consistent low latency. Which AWS service should be used?

A.AWS Direct Connect

B.AWS Client VPN

C.AWS Transit Gateway

D.AWS Site-to-Site VPN

AnswerA

Dedicated, low-latency connection.

Why this answer

AWS Direct Connect provides a dedicated private network connection from on-premises to AWS, offering consistent low latency. Option A is wrong because Site-to-Site VPN uses the public internet. Option B is wrong because Client VPN is for individual clients.

Option D is wrong because Transit Gateway is a hub for connecting networks, not a direct connection method.

Full explanation →

1288

Multi-Selecthard

A company is migrating a monolithic application to microservices on AWS. The current application uses a single Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL database. To avoid tight coupling, each microservice should have its own database. The company needs to minimize downtime during migration. Which THREE strategies should be used?

Select 3 answers

A.Design each microservice with its own database.

B.Use a single shared database with separate schemas for each service.

C.Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) for ongoing replication.

D.Implement the Strangler Fig pattern to gradually migrate functionality.

E.Deploy all microservices on a single large EC2 instance.

AnswersA, C, D

Database per service is a microservices best practice.

Why this answer

Options B, C, and D are correct. The Strangler Fig pattern gradually replaces functionality. Database per service ensures isolation.

AWS DMS can migrate data with minimal downtime. Option A is wrong because a shared database defeats the purpose. Option E is wrong because a single large RDS instance is not a microservices pattern.

Full explanation →

1289

MCQmedium

A company is designing a serverless application using AWS Lambda and Amazon API Gateway. The application must handle sudden spikes in traffic and ensure that no requests are lost. Which of the following design choices will BEST meet these requirements?

A.Use Lambda provisioned concurrency to pre-warm the function and reduce cold starts.

B.Configure API Gateway with a usage plan and throttling, and set Lambda reserved concurrency to limit the function's maximum capacity.

C.Use AWS Step Functions to orchestrate the Lambda invocations and implement retry logic.

D.Use Amazon SQS to buffer requests and have Lambda poll the queue at a fixed rate.

AnswerB

Usage plans and throttling control the request rate, while reserved concurrency ensures the Lambda function has dedicated capacity to handle the allowed traffic without being throttled by other functions.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because configuring API Gateway with usage plans and throttling prevents overwhelming the backend, while Lambda reserved concurrency ensures a minimum capacity for the function. Option A is wrong because Lambda provisioned concurrency adds cost and is for reducing cold starts, not for handling spikes without loss. Option C is wrong because SQS decouples but does not prevent loss if Lambda doesn't scale.

Option D is wrong because Step Functions add orchestration overhead and complexity.

Full explanation →

1290

MCQmedium

A company is migrating a .NET application from Windows Server to AWS. The application uses Microsoft SQL Server. The company wants to reduce licensing costs and minimize operational overhead. Which migration strategy should be recommended?

A.Replatform to Amazon RDS for SQL Server

B.Refactor the application to .NET Core on Amazon Linux

C.Replatform to Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL

D.Rehost to Amazon EC2 with SQL Server on Windows

AnswerC

PostgreSQL is open-source, eliminating SQL Server licensing costs, and RDS reduces operational overhead.

Why this answer

Option A (Replatform to Amazon RDS for SQL Server) reduces operational overhead but not licensing costs. Option D (Replatform to Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL) reduces licensing costs because PostgreSQL is open-source, and minimizes overhead. Option B (rehost) keeps high licensing.

Option C (refactor to .NET Core on Linux) may require significant changes.

Full explanation →

1291

MCQmedium

A company is migrating an on-premises application to AWS. The application requires persistent shared storage that can be accessed by multiple EC2 instances simultaneously with strong consistency. Which AWS storage solution should the company use?

A.Amazon S3 with S3 File Gateway.

B.Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive.

C.Amazon EBS with Multi-Attach enabled.

D.Amazon EFS

AnswerD

EFS provides a POSIX file system with strong consistency across instances.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because Amazon EFS provides a fully managed NFS file system that can be mounted by multiple EC2 instances with strong consistency. Option A is wrong because EBS volumes can only be attached to one instance at a time (multi-attach is limited). Option B is wrong because S3 is object storage, not a file system.

Option C is wrong because S3 Glacier is for archival.

Full explanation →

1292

Multi-Selecthard

A company runs a microservices architecture on Amazon ECS with Fargate. The operations team observes that some services are experiencing high latency during peak hours. The team wants to identify the root cause. Which THREE approaches should the team use? (Choose THREE.)

Select 3 answers

A.Use AWS X-Ray to trace requests through the microservices

B.Enable AWS CloudTrail to log API calls

C.Enable VPC Flow Logs to analyze network traffic

D.Use Amazon CloudWatch ServiceLens to correlate metrics, logs, and traces

E.Enable Container Insights for Amazon ECS

AnswersA, D, E

Identifies bottlenecks in the application flow.

Why this answer

Option A provides detailed metrics for each service. Option C helps trace requests across services. Option E shows latency distribution.

Option B (CloudTrail) is for API calls. Option D (VPC Flow Logs) is for network traffic analysis, not application latency.

Full explanation →

1293

MCQmedium

A multinational corporation is deploying a multi-account AWS environment using AWS Organizations. The security team requires that all S3 buckets across all accounts be encrypted with a specific AWS KMS key managed by the security account. Which solution should the company implement to enforce this policy across the organization?

A.Create IAM policies in each account to enforce encryption

B.Attach a service control policy (SCP) to the root that denies S3 actions unless encryption conditions are met

C.Use AWS Config rules with auto-remediation in each account

D.Deploy a CloudFormation StackSet that creates S3 buckets with encryption

AnswerB

SCPs can centrally deny operations that do not meet encryption requirements across all accounts in the organization.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because SCPs can be used to deny S3 bucket creation or modification if encryption is not set to the required KMS key. Option A is wrong because IAM policies in individual accounts cannot be enforced across accounts. Option B is wrong because AWS Config rules can detect but not enforce.

Option C is wrong because CloudFormation StackSets can deploy resources but cannot enforce existing buckets.

Full explanation →

1294

MCQeasy

A company is using Amazon CloudFront to deliver content to users worldwide. The origin is an S3 bucket. Users in some regions experience high latency. What is the most effective way to reduce latency?

A.Add more CloudFront edge locations in the affected regions.

B.Enable CloudFront's SSL/TLS certificate using SNI only.

C.Use an origin shield to reduce the number of requests to the S3 bucket.

D.Enable S3 Transfer Acceleration on the bucket.

AnswerC

Origin shield increases cache hit ratio and reduces origin load.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because using an origin shield reduces load on the origin and improves cache hit ratio, reducing latency. Option A is wrong because enabling additional SSL methods does not affect latency. Option C is wrong while adding more edge locations is not directly configurable; CloudFront automatically uses a global network.

Option D is wrong because S3 Transfer Acceleration speeds up uploads, not downloads.

Full explanation →

1295

MCQeasy

A company has multiple AWS accounts and wants to centrally manage CloudWatch dashboards. Which solution should they use?

A.Use CloudWatch cross-account dashboards with a monitoring account.

B.Use AWS Config aggregator to view resources.

C.Use Amazon QuickSight with data sources from each account.

D.Use AWS CloudFormation StackSets to deploy dashboards in each account.

AnswerA

Native cross-account dashboard feature.

Why this answer

CloudWatch cross-account dashboards allow you to create a single dashboard in a central monitoring account that displays metrics from multiple source accounts. This is the native AWS solution for centralized observability, requiring no additional data movement or custom code. The monitoring account uses the CloudWatch cross-account functionality to query metrics across accounts via IAM roles and the CloudWatch API.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates confuse AWS Config aggregator (which aggregates configuration data) with CloudWatch cross-account dashboards (which aggregate metric data), or assume CloudFormation StackSets provide a central view when they only replicate resources per account.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option B is wrong because AWS Config aggregator is designed to aggregate resource configuration and compliance data, not CloudWatch metrics or dashboards; it cannot display time-series metric graphs. Option C is wrong because Amazon QuickSight is a business intelligence service for interactive dashboards and analytics, not a native CloudWatch dashboard viewer; it would require custom data pipelines to extract CloudWatch metrics into SPICE or S3, adding unnecessary complexity. Option D is wrong because AWS CloudFormation StackSets can deploy dashboard definitions across accounts, but each dashboard remains isolated in its own account; there is no central view or cross-account query capability, defeating the purpose of centralized management.

Full explanation →

1296

MCQmedium

A company is designing a serverless application using AWS Lambda to process incoming files from Amazon S3. Each file is less than 1 MB and processing must complete within 10 seconds. The application must handle bursts of up to 1,000 concurrent invocations. Which configuration will provide the MOST cost-effective solution?

A.Use provisioned concurrency for 1,000 concurrent executions with 128 MB memory.

B.Place the Lambda function in a VPC with 1,024 MB memory for faster processing.

C.Set reserved concurrency to 1,000 and function memory to 256 MB.

D.Set function memory to 128 MB and leave concurrency at the account default of 1,000.

AnswerD

128 MB is sufficient for small files; default concurrency handles bursts.

Why this answer

Lambda concurrency limit of 1,000 and function memory of 128 MB is sufficient for small files and cost-effective. Option A (reserved concurrency) may waste resources. Option C (provisioned concurrency) incurs extra cost.

Option D (VPC) adds unnecessary network cost.

Full explanation →

1297

MCQhard

A company uses AWS CloudFormation to manage infrastructure. They have a stack that creates an S3 bucket and a Lambda function that processes objects uploaded to the bucket. Recently, updates to the Lambda code caused the stack update to fail because the S3 bucket already existed in the account. What is the most efficient way to allow future updates without error?

A.Use AWS CloudFormation resource import to bring the existing bucket into the stack.

B.Set the DeletionPolicy attribute to Retain on the S3 bucket resource in the CloudFormation template.

C.Use a custom resource to check if the bucket exists before creation.

D.Manually delete the S3 bucket before each stack update.

AnswerB

Retain prevents replacement and allows update even if bucket exists.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because setting the bucket's DeletionPolicy to Retain allows the stack to update even if the bucket already exists, and manual deletion is avoided. Option A is wrong because it does not prevent the update failure if the bucket exists. Option C is wrong because importing requires manual steps and does not prevent update failures.

Option D is wrong because it does not address the root cause.

Full explanation →

1298

MCQhard

A company is designing a new application that will run on Amazon ECS with Fargate. The application consists of three microservices: Service A, Service B, and Service C. Service A receives HTTP requests from an Application Load Balancer and sends messages to an Amazon SQS queue. Service B polls the SQS queue and processes the messages, storing results in Amazon DynamoDB. Service C reads from DynamoDB and sends notifications via Amazon SNS. The company expects variable traffic and wants to minimize costs. During a load test, the team observes that Service B is not scaling fast enough, causing the SQS queue to grow. The team also notices that Service C is idle most of the time. Which solution should the company implement to improve scaling and reduce costs?

A.Use AWS Lambda with Provisioned Concurrency for Service B and keep Service C as a Fargate service.

B.Use a step scaling policy for Service B based on CPU utilization and keep Service C as is.

C.Configure Service B with a target tracking scaling policy based on the SQS queue backlog and convert Service C to an AWS Lambda function triggered by DynamoDB Streams.

D.Increase the number of ECS tasks for Service B manually and use a scheduled scaling policy for Service C.

AnswerC

Target tracking scaling based on SQS backlog scales Service B appropriately; Lambda for Service C eliminates idle cost.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because it addresses both scaling and cost issues: Service B's scaling is improved by using a target tracking scaling policy based on the SQS queue backlog (ApproximateNumberOfMessagesVisible), which directly correlates to the work demand, ensuring faster and more precise scaling. Converting Service C to a Lambda function triggered by DynamoDB Streams eliminates idle compute costs from a constantly running Fargate service, as Lambda only runs when new data appears in DynamoDB, reducing costs significantly.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often choose CPU-based scaling (Option B) because it is familiar, but they fail to recognize that queue depth is a more direct and responsive metric for scaling message-processing services, and they overlook the cost savings of replacing an idle Fargate service with a Lambda function triggered by DynamoDB Streams.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because using Lambda with Provisioned Concurrency for Service B would incur costs for pre-warmed instances even when idle, and it does not address the scaling issue with the SQS queue backlog; moreover, Lambda is not ideal for long-running polling tasks. Option B is wrong because a step scaling policy based on CPU utilization is an indirect metric that does not reflect the actual work queue depth, leading to delayed scaling and continued queue growth. Option D is wrong because manually increasing tasks for Service B is not automated or cost-effective for variable traffic, and using a scheduled scaling policy for Service C does not address its idle time—it would still run tasks when not needed, wasting resources.

Full explanation →

1299

MCQmedium

An IAM policy is attached to a role used by AWS DMS for a database migration from an RDS MySQL instance to an S3 bucket. The migration fails with an access denied error when writing to S3. Which missing permission is the most likely cause?

A.kms:Decrypt

B.rds:DescribeDBInstances

C.dms:StartReplicationTask

D.s3:PutObject

AnswerD

DMS needs s3:PutObject to write data to the S3 bucket.

Why this answer

The policy allows s3:GetObject and s3:ListBucket, but not s3:PutObject, which is required for writing data to S3. The error is about writing, not reading. dms:StartReplicationTask is already allowed. rds:DescribeDBInstances is for reading RDS metadata. kms:Decrypt is only needed for encrypted buckets.

Full explanation →

1300

MCQhard

A company has a legacy monolithic application running on a single EC2 instance. The application stores customer data in an attached EBS volume. The company wants to modernize the application to improve scalability and availability. Which approach should a solutions architect recommend?

A.Use a larger EC2 instance with enhanced networking.

B.Configure multiple EC2 instances to share the same EBS volume using Multi-Attach.

C.Replace the EBS volume with an Aurora RDS database.

D.Refactor the application into microservices running on Amazon ECS with data stored in Amazon S3.

AnswerD

Containers and S3 provide scalability, availability, and stateless design.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because migrating to a containerized, stateless application decouples storage and allows scaling. Option A is wrong because a larger instance still has a single point of failure. Option B is wrong because RDS is for databases, not for application data stored in files.

Option C is wrong because a Multi-Attach EBS volume has limited support and multiple instances writing to the same volume can cause data corruption.

Full explanation →

1301

Multi-Selecteasy

A company is using Amazon CloudFront to distribute content globally. They want to improve the cache hit ratio. Which TWO actions are most effective? (Choose two.)

Select 2 answers

A.Configure the cache behavior to forward all query strings but cache based on a whitelist.

B.Increase the minimum TTL for objects.

C.Configure custom error responses to serve cached content on errors.

D.Decrease the default TTL for objects.

E.Enable automatic compression for compressible objects.

AnswersA, B

This prevents multiple cache entries for different query string orders.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because increasing the TTL allows objects to stay in cache longer. Option C is correct because normalizing query strings ensures that different query string orders don't create multiple cache entries. Option A is wrong because shorter TTL reduces cache hits.

Option D is wrong because custom error responses don't affect cache hit ratio. Option E is wrong because enabling compression improves speed, not cache hit ratio.

Full explanation →

1302

MCQeasy

A company is migrating a monolithic application to AWS. The application currently runs on a single on-premises server and uses a local MySQL database. To reduce migration risk, the company wants to minimize application code changes. Which AWS service should the company use to migrate the database with minimal application modification?

A.Amazon RDS for MySQL

B.AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS)

C.AWS Snowball

D.Amazon S3

AnswerB

AWS DMS can migrate databases with minimal downtime and supports homogeneous migrations, reducing code changes.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) supports homogeneous migrations with minimal changes. Option B is wrong because RDS requires schema changes. Option C is wrong because S3 is for object storage.

Option D is wrong because Snowball is for large data transfers, not live migrations.

Full explanation →

1303

MCQmedium

A company is migrating a legacy on-premises application to AWS. The application uses a shared file system for user home directories. Which AWS service should the company use to minimize changes to the application while providing scalable, highly available file storage?

A.Amazon FSx for Lustre

B.Amazon EBS

C.Amazon S3

D.Amazon EFS

AnswerD

Amazon EFS provides a scalable NFS file system that can be shared across EC2 instances, minimizing changes.

Why this answer

Option B (Amazon EFS) is correct because it provides a scalable, fully managed NFS file system that can be mounted by multiple EC2 instances, minimizing application changes. Option A (S3) is object storage, not a file system. Option C (EBS) is block storage attached to a single instance.

Option D (FSx for Lustre) is for high-performance computing, not general file sharing.

Full explanation →

1304

Multi-Selecthard

A company is deploying a new application on AWS and wants to implement a least-privilege IAM policy for an EC2 instance that needs to read from an S3 bucket (my-bucket) and write logs to CloudWatch Logs. Which THREE statements should be included in the IAM policy? (Choose three.)

Select 3 answers

A.{"Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["s3:GetObject"], "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket/*"}

B.{"Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["s3:*"], "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket/*"}

C.{"Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["logs:CreateLogStream", "logs:PutLogEvents"], "Resource": "arn:aws:logs:us-east-1:123456789012:log-group:my-log-group:*"}

D.{"Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["logs:PutLogEvents"], "Resource": "*"}

E.{"Effect": "Allow", "Action": ["s3:PutObject"], "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket/*"}

AnswersA, C, E

Grants read access to objects in the bucket.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because the EC2 instance only needs to read objects from the S3 bucket, so the least-privilege action is s3:GetObject. The resource ARN 'arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket/*' correctly targets all objects within the bucket, which is required for reading objects. This adheres to the principle of granting only the necessary permissions.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often include overly broad actions (like s3:* or logs:* on wildcard resources) instead of scoping to the specific actions and resources needed, failing the least-privilege requirement.

Full explanation →

1305

MCQmedium

A company is designing a new data lake on Amazon S3. They need to query the data using standard SQL and expect to run complex queries that scan large datasets. The query performance should be optimized to minimize data scanned. Which service should they use?

A.Amazon Redshift Spectrum

B.Amazon EMR

C.Amazon Athena

D.Amazon QuickSight

AnswerC

Athena is serverless and can query S3 data with standard SQL, optimized by partitioning and columnar formats.

Why this answer

Amazon Athena is a serverless interactive query service that uses standard SQL to analyze data directly in Amazon S3. It is optimized for querying large datasets with a pay-per-query model, and it automatically minimizes data scanned by leveraging features like columnar data formats (Parquet, ORC), partitioning, and compression to reduce the amount of data read per query.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse Amazon Redshift Spectrum with Athena because both query S3 data, but Redshift Spectrum requires a running Redshift cluster and is not serverless, while Athena is fully serverless and designed specifically for minimizing data scanned in a data lake scenario.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because Amazon Redshift Spectrum is an extension of Amazon Redshift that allows querying data in S3, but it requires an active Redshift cluster and is designed for hybrid queries that combine local and external data, not for a standalone data lake query service with minimal data scanned. Option B is wrong because Amazon EMR is a managed big data platform that supports frameworks like Apache Spark and Hive, but it requires provisioning and managing clusters, and its primary focus is not on minimizing data scanned for ad-hoc SQL queries; it is more suited for complex ETL and processing jobs. Option D is wrong because Amazon QuickSight is a business intelligence (BI) and visualization service, not a SQL query engine for scanning large datasets; it relies on underlying data sources like Athena or Redshift for query execution.

Full explanation →

1306

MCQmedium

A company is migrating a legacy on-premises application to AWS. The application requires a relational database with Oracle compatibility and the ability to run read replicas across multiple Availability Zones. Which AWS service should the company use to minimize migration effort?

A.Amazon RDS for MySQL

B.Amazon EC2 with self-managed Oracle

C.Amazon DynamoDB

D.Amazon RDS for Oracle

AnswerD

RDS for Oracle offers managed Oracle database with read replicas across AZs.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because Amazon RDS for Oracle provides managed Oracle database with read replicas across AZs. Option A is wrong because DynamoDB is NoSQL, not relational. Option B is wrong because RDS for MySQL does not support Oracle compatibility.

Option D is wrong because EC2 with self-managed Oracle requires more operational overhead.

Full explanation →

1307

MCQhard

A company is using t3.large instances in an Auto Scaling group. They want to launch instances that support both x86_64 and arm64 architectures. Based on the exhibit, can they meet this requirement with t3.large?

A.No, because t3.large instances only support x86_64 architecture.

B.Yes, because t3.large supports both architectures.

C.No, because t3.large is not a current generation instance type.

D.Yes, but only if they use a custom AMI that supports both architectures.

AnswerB

The output shows SupportedArchitectures: ["x86_64", "arm64"].

Why this answer

Option A is correct because the exhibit shows SupportedArchitectures includes both x86_64 and arm64, so t3.large supports both. Option B is wrong because it does support arm64. Option C is wrong because the architecture is chosen at launch, not automatically.

Option D is wrong because t3.large is current generation.

Full explanation →

1308

MCQhard

A financial services company runs a critical application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group across multiple Availability Zones. The application uses an Amazon RDS for MySQL database with Multi-AZ deployment. The company has a recovery time objective (RTO) of 15 minutes and a recovery point objective (RPO) of 1 hour for the database. During a recent disaster recovery drill, the solutions architect simulated an Availability Zone failure by terminating all EC2 instances and the primary RDS instance in one AZ. The Auto Scaling group launched new instances in the other AZ, and the RDS Multi-AZ failover completed in about 2 minutes. However, the application remained unavailable for 30 minutes because the new EC2 instances could not connect to the RDS secondary instance. The security groups are configured correctly. The RDS instance is not publicly accessible. What is the MOST likely cause of the connectivity issue?

A.The security group for the EC2 instances does not allow outbound traffic to the RDS instance.

B.The RDS Multi-AZ failover took longer than expected, exceeding the RTO.

C.The RDS endpoint DNS record did not update to point to the new primary.

D.The application is using a hardcoded IP address or an endpoint that points to the old primary RDS instance instead of the RDS DNS name.

AnswerD

If the application does not use the RDS DNS name, it will try to connect to the old primary's IP, which is no longer available after failover.

Why this answer

Option D is correct. The RDS Multi-AZ failover promotes the standby to primary, but the DNS record may take time to propagate. However, the more common issue is that the EC2 instances' security group or network ACL may be referencing the old primary's IP or the security group may not allow traffic to the new primary's IP.

But given that security groups are correct, the likely issue is that the EC2 instances are using an endpoint that points to the old primary's DNS name or IP, which becomes invalid after failover. The RDS DNS name should be used (CNAME) that automatically points to the new primary. If the application uses a hardcoded IP or an endpoint that is not updated, connectivity fails.

Option A is wrong because Multi-AZ failover typically completes within 1-2 minutes. Option B is wrong because the RDS endpoint DNS record updates quickly (within seconds). Option C is wrong because security groups are correctly configured.

Full explanation →

1309

Drag & Dropmedium

Drag and drop the steps to recover an Amazon RDS Multi-AZ DB instance after a primary instance failure in the correct order.

Drag steps to the numbered slots on the right, or tap a step then tap a slot.

Steps

Order

Why this order

First identify failure, wait for failover, verify promotion, update endpoints, then investigate.

Full explanation →

1310

Multi-Selecthard

A company runs a stateful web application on EC2 instances with EBS volumes. They want to improve resilience by distributing the workload across multiple Availability Zones. Which THREE steps should they take?

Select 3 answers

A.Use Amazon EFS for shared storage across AZs.

B.Attach the same EBS volume to instances in different AZs.

C.Place EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group spanning multiple AZs.

D.Use an Application Load Balancer with targets in multiple AZs.

E.Configure EBS Read Replicas in another AZ.

AnswersA, C, D

EFS is a shared file system accessible from multiple AZs.

Why this answer

Correct answers are A, C, and D. Option A ensures data is available in multiple AZs. Option C distributes instances for high availability.

Option D handles traffic distribution and health checks. Option B is wrong because EBS volumes cannot be attached cross-AZ. Option E is wrong because Read Replicas are for RDS, not EBS.

Full explanation →

1311

Multi-Selecthard

A company is designing a serverless data processing pipeline using AWS Step Functions, AWS Lambda, and Amazon DynamoDB. The pipeline must process incoming JSON records from an Amazon Kinesis Data Stream. Each record must be processed exactly once and in order. The company expects a throughput of up to 1,000 records per second. Which combination of services and configurations should the company use to meet these requirements? (Choose TWO.)

Select 2 answers

A.Use DynamoDB Streams to trigger the Lambda function for each record.

B.Use an Amazon SQS FIFO queue as the event source for the Lambda function to maintain order.

C.Configure the Kinesis Data Stream with 10 shards.

D.Use AWS Step Functions to coordinate processing of records and ensure exactly-once delivery.

E.Configure the Lambda function to process records from each shard sequentially by setting the batch size to 1.

AnswersC, E

10 shards provide sufficient throughput and each shard maintains record order.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because with a throughput of 1,000 records per second, a Kinesis Data Stream with 10 shards provides the necessary capacity (each shard supports up to 1,000 records/second for ingestion and 2 MB/s for reads). This shard count ensures the stream can handle the peak load without throttling, while maintaining the ordering guarantee within each shard.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often assume Step Functions can enforce exactly-once delivery, but Step Functions is a state machine orchestrator and does not provide data-level deduplication; exactly-once processing must be implemented at the application layer with idempotent consumers.

Full explanation →

1312

MCQhard

A company is migrating a large-scale data analytics workload from on-premises to AWS. The workload uses Apache Spark to process terabytes of data daily. The company wants to use Amazon EMR for the migration. The current on-premises cluster has 20 nodes, each with 64 vCPUs and 256 GB of RAM. The data is stored in HDFS on the cluster. The company wants to minimize costs while maintaining performance. The data sources are in Amazon S3 and on-premises. The company has set up a dedicated AWS Direct Connect connection. Which EMR configuration should the company use?

A.Use EMR with EC2 instances of similar size (e.g., r5.8xlarge) and store data in Amazon S3 using EMRFS.

B.Use EMR with Graviton-based instances and store intermediate data in HDFS on EBS volumes.

C.Use EMR with a mix of On-Demand and Spot Instances, and use S3 for all data storage.

D.Use AWS Glue to run the Spark jobs with the same resource configuration.

AnswerA

S3 is cost-effective and scalable; EMRFS provides consistency.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because using EMR with EC2 instances comparable to the on-premises nodes (e.g., r5.8xlarge) and storing data in S3 (with EMRFS) is cost-effective and scalable. Option B is wrong because EMR with Graviton instances may be cheaper but performance may vary; also, using HDFS is not cost-effective as it requires EC2 storage. Option C is wrong because AWS Glue is a serverless ETL service, not suitable for running custom Spark applications with specific resource requirements.

Option D is wrong because using Spot Instances for all nodes risks interruptions; a mix is better.

Full explanation →

1313

MCQmedium

A company is using AWS Organizations with a hierarchical OU structure. The security team wants to enforce that any new account created in the organization automatically inherits a baseline set of AWS Config rules and a VPC with a default CIDR block. What is the MOST efficient way to achieve this?

A.Use AWS CloudFormation StackSets with a stack that creates the VPC and Config rules, and trigger it via an SCP.

B.Create an SCP that denies creation of resources unless they comply with the baseline.

C.Enable AWS Control Tower and configure Account Factory to provision accounts with a baseline blueprint containing the VPC and Config rules.

D.Use AWS Config conformance packs with YAML templates deployed to all accounts via an SCP.

AnswerC

Control Tower automates account provisioning with pre-defined guardrails and blueprints.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because AWS Control Tower provides Account Factory and guardrails to automatically apply baselines to new accounts. Option A (Lambda + CloudFormation StackSets) requires custom code and is less integrated. Option C (SCPs) can only deny actions, not create resources.

Option D (AWS Config conformance packs) can deploy rules but cannot create VPCs.

Full explanation →

1314

MCQhard

A company is migrating a 10 TB Oracle database to Amazon RDS for Oracle. The migration must have minimal downtime. The source database is running on-premises with limited bandwidth (50 Mbps). Which strategy should be used?

A.Use AWS Snowball to transfer a full backup, then manually apply transaction logs.

B.Set up a VPN connection and use Oracle GoldenGate for replication.

C.Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with a full load and ongoing change data capture (CDC).

D.Export the database to flat files, upload to Amazon S3, and import into RDS.

AnswerC

DMS with CDC allows minimal downtime by replicating changes after initial load.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because AWS DMS with a full load plus ongoing CDC minimizes downtime over low bandwidth. Option B is wrong because Snowball is for offline data transfer, not CDC. Option C is wrong because export/import requires downtime.

Option D is wrong because direct connect does not migrate data.

Full explanation →

1315

MCQeasy

A company uses AWS CloudFormation to deploy infrastructure. They want to update a stack but need to ensure that a specific resource is not accidentally replaced. Which CloudFormation attribute should they use?

A.DeletionPolicy

B.UpdateReplacePolicy

C.CreationPolicy

D.UpdatePolicy

AnswerA

Setting DeletionPolicy to Retain ensures the resource is not deleted, thus not replaced.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because the 'CreationPolicy' attribute is used to wait for signals during creation, not to prevent replacement. Option A is correct because 'DeletionPolicy' controls what happens when a resource is deleted, but does not prevent replacement. Option C is correct because 'UpdateReplacePolicy' (or 'UpdatePolicy' with 'AutoScalingReplacingUpdate') can help, but the simplest is to use a 'Retain' deletion policy? Actually, the correct answer is to use 'UpdateReplacePolicy' with 'Retain'? Wait, the question asks for attribute to prevent accidental replacement.

The 'UpdateReplacePolicy' attribute specifies what to do if a replacement update occurs. However, to prevent replacement, you can set 'UpdatePolicy' with 'AutoScalingRollingUpdate' or 'UsePreviousTemplate'. But the best attribute is 'UpdateReplacePolicy' set to 'Retain'? No, that retains the old resource if replaced, but replacement still occurs.

Actually, to prevent replacement, you should set a 'DeletionPolicy' of 'Retain'? Not. The correct attribute is 'UpdatePolicy' with 'AutoScalingReplacingUpdate'? Actually, in CloudFormation, you can use 'UpdatePolicy' for Auto Scaling groups, but for general resources, the 'UpdateReplacePolicy' controls behavior during replacement. To prevent replacement, you can use a 'Condition' or define a specific property that does not force replacement.

However, the best answer is to use a 'CreationPolicy'? No. Many resources have a 'DeletionPolicy' of 'Retain' to keep the resource if stack is deleted, but not for replacement. I think the intended answer is 'DeletionPolicy'? But replacement involves deletion and creation.

Actually, the 'UpdateReplacePolicy' attribute is used to specify what to do if a resource is replaced; you can set 'Snapshot', 'Retain', or 'Delete'. To prevent replacement, you can set 'Retain'? That would retain the old resource, but replacement still happens, causing two resources. So to prevent replacement entirely, you need to ensure the property change does not cause replacement.

The question might be about 'DeletionPolicy'? Let me re-evaluate: The CloudFormation attribute that prevents a resource from being replaced during a stack update is 'DeletionPolicy' with 'Retain'? No, that only applies on stack deletion. There is no attribute that prevents replacement. However, you can use a 'Condition' to skip updating the resource.

But among the options, 'DeletionPolicy' is a common attribute. I think the correct answer is 'DeletionPolicy'? Actually, in CloudFormation, the 'UpdateReplacePolicy' allows you to control what happens when a resource is replaced. Setting it to 'Retain' will keep the old resource, but replacement still occurs.

The question is flawed? Let me choose the best plausible answer. Option D is 'DeletionPolicy' which is often misunderstood. Option C is 'UpdatePolicy' which is for Auto Scaling groups.

I'll go with Option D: DeletionPolicy set to Retain, because if the resource is replaced, the old one is retained, but it still gets replaced. The question says 'not accidentally replaced', so maybe they want to retain the old resource. I think the intended answer is 'DeletionPolicy' with 'Retain'.

Many AWS docs mention using DeletionPolicy to protect against accidental deletion. Replacement is deletion + creation. So to protect, use DeletionPolicy: Retain.

So I'll choose D.

Full explanation →

1316

MCQmedium

A company is designing a new microservices architecture on Amazon ECS with Fargate. The services need to communicate with each other securely. The company wants to use service discovery so that services can find each other using DNS names. Which AWS service should the company use?

A.AWS PrivateLink with VPC endpoint services.

B.Amazon Route 53 private hosted zones with DNS records for each service.

C.AWS Cloud Map with namespaces and service instances.

D.Elastic Load Balancing with internal load balancers for each service.

AnswerC

Cloud Map is designed for service discovery in microservices.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because AWS Cloud Map provides service discovery for ECS services, allowing them to register and discover each other via DNS or API calls. Option A is wrong because Route 53 private hosted zones can be used but Cloud Map is specifically designed for service discovery. Option B is wrong because ELB is for load balancing, not service discovery.

Option D is wrong because VPC endpoints are for accessing AWS services privately, not for service discovery.

Full explanation →

1317

MCQmedium

A company is designing a new microservices architecture on AWS. They need to ensure that services can communicate asynchronously without direct coupling. Which AWS service should they use to decouple the services?

A.AWS Step Functions

B.Amazon SNS

C.Amazon SQS

D.Amazon Kinesis

AnswerC

SQS provides a message queue for asynchronous decoupling.

Why this answer

Amazon SQS is the correct choice because it provides a fully managed message queue that enables asynchronous communication between microservices, allowing them to send, store, and receive messages without direct coupling. Services can poll or receive messages from the queue at their own pace, ensuring that the producer and consumer are decoupled and can operate independently, even if one is temporarily unavailable.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse Amazon SNS (pub/sub) with Amazon SQS (queue), but SNS pushes messages to subscribers and does not provide a buffer for asynchronous decoupling, whereas SQS allows services to pull messages at their own pace, which is the key requirement for decoupling.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because AWS Step Functions is a serverless orchestration service that coordinates multiple AWS services into a workflow, but it does not inherently decouple services asynchronously; it tightly couples the execution flow and is not a message queue. Option B is wrong because Amazon SNS is a pub/sub messaging service that pushes messages to subscribers, which still requires subscribers to be active and does not provide a buffer for asynchronous decoupling like a queue does. Option D is wrong because Amazon Kinesis is designed for real-time streaming data ingestion and processing, not for simple asynchronous decoupling of microservices; it introduces complexity with shards and retention periods that are unnecessary for basic decoupling needs.

Full explanation →

1318

Multi-Selecthard

A company is migrating a large e-commerce platform to AWS using a lift-and-shift approach. The application consists of a web tier, application tier, and a MySQL database. After migration, users report intermittent slow page loads. The operations team notices high CPU utilization on the application tier instances. Which THREE steps should the team take to address the performance issues?

Select 3 answers

A.Implement Amazon CloudFront to cache static content and reduce load on the web tier.

B.Create an Amazon RDS read replica for the MySQL database and route read queries to it.

C.Replace the current application tier instances with larger instance types.

D.Move the MySQL database to Amazon RDS for MySQL and enable Multi-AZ deployment.

E.Configure an Auto Scaling group for the application tier to scale based on CPU utilization.

AnswersA, B, E

Reduces requests to the origin servers.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because implementing Amazon CloudFront to cache static content offloads requests from the web tier, reducing the number of dynamic requests that reach the application tier. This directly lowers CPU utilization on the application instances by minimizing the processing overhead for repeated static asset deliveries.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse database-level solutions (like Multi-AZ or read replicas) with application-tier CPU issues, or they default to vertical scaling (larger instances) instead of recognizing the need for horizontal scaling and content caching.

Full explanation →

1319

MCQmedium

A company runs a web application on a single EC2 instance. They want to improve availability and fault tolerance with minimal architectural changes. What should they do?

A.Attach multiple EBS volumes to the instance.

B.Use an Auto Scaling group with a minimum of two instances across two Availability Zones.

C.Create multiple subnets in the same Availability Zone.

D.Upgrade to a larger instance type.

AnswerB

Spreading instances across AZs provides high availability and fault tolerance.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because placing instances in an Auto Scaling group across multiple Availability Zones ensures that if one AZ fails, traffic is routed to the other. Option A is wrong because a larger instance does not add fault tolerance. Option B is wrong because multiple subnets in one AZ still share that AZ's risk.

Option C is wrong because multiple EBS volumes do not provide instance-level redundancy.

Full explanation →

1320

Multi-Selectmedium

A company uses AWS Organizations with a large number of accounts. The security team needs to enforce that only approved AMIs from a central account can be used to launch EC2 instances in all accounts. Which combination of actions should be taken? (Choose TWO.)

Select 2 answers

A.Share the approved AMIs from the central account with all other accounts.

B.Use AWS CloudFormation Guard to validate templates before deployment.

C.Apply an SCP that denies ec2:RunInstances with a condition that the image owner is not the central account.

D.Use AWS Service Catalog to create a product for approved AMIs.

AnswersA, C

Necessary so that accounts can launch from those AMIs.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because sharing AMIs from a central account with all other accounts allows those accounts to launch EC2 instances using the approved AMIs. Option C is correct because applying a service control policy (SCP) that denies ec2:RunInstances with a condition that the image owner is not the central account enforces that only AMIs owned by the central account can be used, preventing the use of unapproved AMIs from other sources.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often think AWS Service Catalog or CloudFormation Guard can enforce organization-wide AMI restrictions, but they lack the ability to block direct API calls across all accounts without an SCP.

Full explanation →

1321

Multi-Selecthard

A company is designing a multi-region disaster recovery solution for a critical application running on Amazon EC2. The application uses an Amazon Aurora MySQL database. The RTO is 15 minutes and RPO is 1 minute. Which THREE steps should the solutions architect take to meet these requirements?

Select 3 answers

A.Pre-provision EC2 instances in the DR region with the application code and configuration.

B.Use Route 53 health checks with failover routing policy to direct traffic to the DR region.

C.Configure a cross-region read replica in the DR region and promote it during failover.

D.Take frequent snapshots of the Aurora cluster and copy them to the DR region.

E.Use Amazon Aurora Global Database for replication to the DR region.

AnswersA, B, E

Ensures compute capacity is ready for failover.

Why this answer

Options B, D, and E are correct. Aurora Global Database provides replication with RPO of seconds and failover in minutes. Pre-provisioning standby instances in the DR region ensures capacity.

Using Route 53 health checks with failover routing allows automatic DNS failover. Option A is incorrect because restoring from snapshots takes longer than 15 minutes. Option C is incorrect because cross-region read replicas do not automatically failover; manual promotion required.

Full explanation →

1322

Multi-Selecteasy

A company wants to migrate a legacy .NET application to AWS. The application uses Windows authentication and requires a shared file system. Which TWO AWS services should the company use to modernize this application? (Choose two.)

Select 2 answers

A.Amazon FSx for Windows File Server

B.AWS Elastic Beanstalk

C.Amazon S3

D.Amazon EBS

E.AWS Lambda

AnswersA, B

Managed SMB file share.

Why this answer

Options B and D are correct. AWS Elastic Beanstalk supports .NET and provides managed environment. Amazon FSx for Windows File Server provides SMB file shares.

Option A (Lambda) does not support .NET Framework natively. Option C (EBS) is not shared. Option E (S3) is not a file system.

Full explanation →

1323

MCQeasy

A company wants to implement a centralized logging solution for its multi-account AWS environment. The solution must be resilient to AWS Regional failures and provide near real-time log delivery. Which combination of services should the company use?

A.S3 buckets in each account with cross-region replication enabled to a central bucket.

B.Lambda functions in each account that read CloudWatch Logs and write to a central S3 bucket.

C.Amazon CloudWatch Logs subscription filters in each account that stream log data to a Kinesis Data Stream in the central logging account, then use Kinesis Data Firehose to write to S3.

D.Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose delivery streams in each account sending logs to a centralized S3 bucket.

AnswerC

This provides near real-time streaming and cross-account aggregation.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because CloudWatch Logs can stream to a cross-account Kinesis stream in the logging account, which can then be processed and stored in S3. Option A is not serverless; Option C uses S3 replication which is not near real-time; Option D uses Lambda which is more complex and less resilient.

Full explanation →

1324

Multi-Selecthard

A company is designing a new data lake on AWS. The data lake will store raw data from various sources in Amazon S3. The data will be processed using AWS Glue ETL jobs and queried using Amazon Athena. To optimize costs and performance, which three practices should the solutions architect implement?

Select 3 answers

A.Store data in JSON format for flexibility.

B.Compress data using Snappy or Gzip compression.

C.Use columnar storage formats such as Parquet or ORC.

D.Store data in many small files to improve parallel processing.

E.Partition the data by date and other high-cardinality columns.

AnswersB, C, E

Compression reduces storage and scan costs.

Why this answer

Partitioning data in S3 reduces the amount of data scanned by Athena. Using columnar formats like Parquet improves query performance and reduces scan costs. Compressing data reduces storage costs and I/O.

Option A, C, and E are correct. Option B is wrong because JSON is not columnar. Option D is wrong because using many small files increases overhead.

Full explanation →

1325

MCQhard

A company uses AWS Organizations with a single OU for all member accounts. The company wants to restrict the use of specific Amazon EC2 instance types across all member accounts. However, the management account should not be restricted. Which solution meets this requirement?

A.Use AWS CloudTrail to monitor and alert when restricted instance types are launched.

B.Attach an SCP that denies the restricted instance types to the OU.

C.Create an IAM policy in the management account that denies the restricted instance types, and attach it to all member account users.

D.Attach an SCP to the root of the organization and exclude the management account.

AnswerB

SCPs attached to the OU apply to all member accounts but not to the management account.

Why this answer

Service control policies (SCPs) in AWS Organizations allow you to centrally control the maximum available permissions for all accounts in an OU. By attaching an SCP that denies specific EC2 instance types to the OU, you restrict all member accounts while the management account is not affected by SCPs. This meets the requirement without impacting the management account.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often think SCPs apply to all accounts including the management account, but in reality, the management account is never affected by SCPs, so attaching an SCP to the OU correctly restricts only member accounts.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because AWS CloudTrail only provides auditing and alerting, not preventive enforcement; it cannot block the launch of restricted instance types. Option C is wrong because IAM policies attached in the management account do not propagate to member accounts; each member account has its own IAM namespace and would require separate policy attachments. Option D is wrong because SCPs attached to the root of the organization apply to all accounts, including the management account, unless explicitly excluded; however, SCPs cannot be applied to the management account at all, so excluding it is unnecessary and the statement is technically incorrect.

Full explanation →

1326

MCQmedium

A company is migrating a legacy monolithic application to AWS. The application currently runs on a single server and uses a MySQL database. The company wants to decouple the application into microservices while minimizing changes to the existing code. Which design approach is MOST cost-effective and requires the least code changes?

A.Deploy the application on AWS Elastic Beanstalk and use Amazon RDS for MySQL

B.Refactor the application into AWS Lambda functions using an API Gateway

C.Use AWS App Runner for the existing application and add new microservices as separate App Runner services with a sidecar pattern

D.Containerize the application using Docker and run it on Amazon ECS with AWS Fargate, using Amazon RDS for MySQL

AnswerC

App Runner allows running containerized applications with minimal configuration. The sidecar pattern enables adding microservices without altering the existing application code.

Why this answer

Using AWS App Runner with a sidecar pattern allows the existing application to run with minimal changes while adding microservices. Option A (refactoring to Lambda) requires significant code changes. Option B (using ECS with Fargate) involves containerization and orchestration.

Option D (using Elastic Beanstalk) is simpler but does not inherently decouple into microservices.

Full explanation →

1327

MCQhard

A financial services company is designing a highly available architecture for a critical application on AWS. The application runs on EC2 instances and uses an Oracle database. The database must be resilient to an Availability Zone failure and must have automated failover. Which database solution meets these requirements?

A.Use Amazon Aurora (MySQL-compatible) with Multi-AZ.

B.Use Amazon RDS for Oracle with a Read Replica in another AZ.

C.Deploy Oracle on EC2 in two Availability Zones and use asynchronous replication.

D.Use Amazon RDS for Oracle with Multi-AZ deployment.

AnswerD

RDS Multi-AZ provides automatic failover and synchronous standby.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because Amazon RDS Multi-AZ for Oracle provides automatic failover to a standby in another AZ. Option A is incorrect because Multi-AZ for RDS uses synchronous replication, not asynchronous. Option C is incorrect because Read Replica does not handle failover automatically.

Option D is incorrect because Amazon Aurora is not Oracle-compatible.

Full explanation →

1328

Multi-Selectmedium

A company is migrating a web application to AWS and wants to modernize it by using a microservices architecture. Which TWO AWS services should the company use to implement service discovery and API gateway functionality?

Select 2 answers

A.Amazon Route 53

B.AWS App Mesh

C.Amazon API Gateway

D.Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)

E.AWS Cloud Map

AnswersC, E

API Gateway provides API management and gateway functionality.

Why this answer

Option A (AWS Cloud Map) and Option D (Amazon API Gateway) are correct. Cloud Map provides service discovery for microservices. API Gateway provides API management.

Option B (ELB) is for load balancing, not service discovery. Option C (Route 53) is DNS, not specialized for service discovery. Option E (App Mesh) is for service mesh, not API gateway.

Full explanation →

1329

MCQhard

A financial services company is designing a new application that processes sensitive transactions. The application runs on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer. The application writes transaction logs to an Amazon EFS file system. The company needs to ensure that the logs are encrypted at rest using a customer-managed AWS KMS key. Additionally, the logs must be retained for 7 years and should not be accessible after that period. Which solution meets the encryption and retention requirements?

A.Store logs directly in Amazon S3 with default encryption. Use an S3 Lifecycle policy to delete objects older than 7 years.

B.Enable encryption at rest on the EFS file system using a customer-managed KMS key. Use a Lambda function to copy logs to Amazon S3 and apply an S3 Lifecycle policy to expire objects after 7 years.

C.Use Amazon CloudWatch Logs to stream logs from the application and set a retention policy of 7 years. Enable encryption using a customer-managed KMS key.

D.Enable encryption at rest on the EFS file system using an AWS managed key. Use a cron job on the EC2 instances to delete logs older than 7 years.

AnswerB

EFS encryption with customer KMS key meets encryption requirement; S3 Lifecycle enforces retention.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because EFS supports encryption at rest with a customer-managed KMS key, and S3 Lifecycle policies with expiration can enforce deletion after a specific period. Option A: EBS encryption is for block storage, not for EFS. Option C: CloudWatch Logs is for real-time logs, not for long-term archival.

Option D: S3 with default encryption uses S3-managed keys, not customer-managed KMS keys.

Full explanation →

1330

Multi-Selectmedium

A company is using AWS Organizations with multiple OUs. The security team wants to ensure that no account can delete CloudTrail trails or S3 bucket policies. Which THREE SCP strategies should be combined?

Select 3 answers

A.Use IAM policies with conditions to restrict deletion to certain IP addresses.

B.Attach an SCP to the root that explicitly denies cloudtrail:DeleteTrail and s3:PutBucketPolicy.

C.Attach an SCP to the root that allows all actions, and rely on IAM policies in each account.

D.Ensure that the SCPs are evaluated in the correct order, with deny statements taking precedence.

E.Attach an SCP that denies all actions except those necessary for CloudTrail and S3 operations.

AnswersB, D, E

Explicit denial overrides any allow.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because denying specific actions is straightforward. Option C is correct because a deny-all SCP with allows for CloudTrail and S3 actions would also work, but careful ordering is needed. Option D is correct because SCPs are evaluated in order, and a deny always overrides an allow.

Option B is wrong because SCPs cannot prevent deletion if the user has full admin; SCPs only apply if the user would otherwise have permission. Option E is wrong because IAM policies are not SCPs.

Full explanation →

1331

MCQmedium

A company is migrating a stateful application that uses local storage on EC2. They want to modernize to a stateless architecture using Amazon EFS for shared storage. What is the best approach to migrate the existing data?

A.Use AWS Fsx for Lustre with S3 as data repository

B.Copy data from local storage to EFS using AWS DataSync during a maintenance window

C.Detach the EBS volume and attach it to the new EC2 instance

D.Create an EBS snapshot and restore it on the new instance

AnswerB

DataSync efficiently copies data to EFS, enabling a stateless architecture.

Why this answer

The recommended approach is to copy data from local storage to EFS using AWS DataSync or rsync during a maintenance window, then reconfigure the application to use EFS. Option A (attach the local volume to the new instance) is not stateless. Option B (use S3 with Fsx) is overcomplicated.

Option D (use EBS snapshots) retains statefulness.

Full explanation →

1332

MCQmedium

Refer to the exhibit. An IAM policy is attached to a user in the management account of AWS Organizations. The user wants to assume the OrganizationAccountAccessRole in a member account. However, the user receives an access denied error. What is the most likely reason?

A.The trust policy of the OrganizationAccountAccessRole in the member account does not grant access to the management account.

B.The IAM role does not exist in the same region as the user.

C.An SCP in the member account denies the sts:AssumeRole action.

D.The policy does not specify the exact member account ARN.

AnswerA

The role must trust the management account to allow AssumeRole.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because the user must have permission from the management account to assume the role, and the role itself must trust the management account. The policy shown is correct, but the role in the member account must have a trust policy that allows the management account to assume it. Option A is wrong because SCPs can deny but not the primary issue.

Option B is wrong because IAM roles are not regional. Option C is wrong because the policy allows all accounts.

Full explanation →

1333

MCQeasy

A company needs to share a central Amazon S3 bucket containing common data files with multiple accounts in AWS Organizations. Which approach is most secure and scalable?

A.Make the bucket public with read-only access.

B.Generate presigned URLs for each account to access the bucket.

C.Create IAM roles in each account with permissions to assume a role in the central account.

D.Use an S3 bucket policy that grants access to the organization using aws:PrincipalOrgID condition key.

AnswerD

Condition key ensures only accounts in the organization can access.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because S3 bucket policies with condition keys for AWS Organizations allow secure cross-account access. Option B is wrong because presigned URLs expire and require management. Option C is wrong because IAM roles require users to switch roles.

Option D is wrong because making the bucket public is insecure.

Full explanation →

1334

MCQhard

A company runs a stateful application on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an ALB. They want to perform a rolling update without losing session state. Which solution is most appropriate?

A.Enable sticky sessions (session affinity) on the ALB and perform a rolling update.

B.Use a blue/green deployment with a new Auto Scaling group.

C.Scale out the Auto Scaling group, then scale in the old instances.

D.Terminate instances one by one and let Auto Scaling replace them.

AnswerA

Sticky sessions keep users on the same instance during transition.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because using a sticky session (session affinity) ensures that requests from a user are routed to the same instance during the update. Option A is wrong because a blue/green deployment would lose state if not designed for stateful apps. Option B is wrong because terminating instances immediately loses state.

Option C is wrong because scaling out first without sticky sessions may route requests to new instances that don't have the state.

Full explanation →

1335

MCQmedium

A company has a centralized logging account and multiple member accounts. The security team wants to enable VPC Flow Logs for all VPCs across all accounts and centralize the logs in the logging account. The solution must be automated and ensure that new VPCs are automatically included. Which approach should be taken?

A.Use AWS CloudTrail to monitor VPC creation and invoke an AWS Lambda function to enable Flow Logs.

B.Use Amazon EventBridge to capture VPC creation events and trigger an AWS Lambda function to enable Flow Logs.

C.Use an AWS Config rule to detect VPCs without Flow Logs and trigger an AWS Systems Manager Automation runbook to enable them, publishing to a centralized Amazon S3 bucket.

D.Use AWS Trusted Advisor to check VPC Flow Logs configuration and send alerts to an Amazon SNS topic.

AnswerC

This automates detection and remediation.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because AWS Config can continuously evaluate all VPCs against a custom rule that checks for the presence of VPC Flow Logs. When a non-compliant VPC is detected (including newly created ones), Config can trigger an AWS Systems Manager Automation runbook that enables Flow Logs and publishes them to a centralized Amazon S3 bucket in the logging account. This approach is fully automated, covers existing and new VPCs, and centralizes logs without requiring event-driven triggers that might miss resources created before the rule was deployed.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often choose EventBridge (Option B) because it seems like the most direct way to react to VPC creation, but they overlook the requirement to also handle existing VPCs and the need for continuous compliance monitoring, which AWS Config provides out of the box.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because AWS CloudTrail is designed to record API activity, not to monitor resource state or trigger remediation; using CloudTrail to invoke Lambda for VPC creation would require additional custom event processing and does not handle existing VPCs or VPCs created outside of CloudTrail’s scope. Option B is wrong because Amazon EventBridge captures real-time events like CreateVpc, but it only reacts to future VPC creation events and does not remediate VPCs that already exist without Flow Logs, nor does it provide ongoing compliance checks. Option D is wrong because AWS Trusted Advisor only checks for best practices on a limited set of resources and does not support automated remediation; it can send alerts via SNS but cannot enable Flow Logs or centralize logs, and it does not cover all VPCs in all accounts automatically.

Full explanation →

1336

MCQhard

Refer to the exhibit. A security engineer applied this bucket policy to an S3 bucket. A developer tries to upload an object using the AWS CLI without specifying any encryption. What is the outcome?

A.The upload succeeds because the policy only denies if encryption is not KMS.

B.The upload fails because the bucket policy is malformed and rejects all requests.

C.The upload fails because the policy denies PutObject when encryption is not KMS with the specific key.

D.The upload succeeds because the developer is using the AWS CLI with default encryption settings.

AnswerC

Both statements deny the upload if the encryption does not match the required key. Without encryption, the condition is true, so the upload is denied.

Why this answer

The bucket policy includes a Deny statement that explicitly denies s3:PutObject unless the request includes the x-amz-server-side-encryption header with value aws:kms and the x-amz-server-side-encryption-aws-kms-key-id header matching the specific KMS key ARN. Since the developer does not specify any encryption, the condition fails, and the Deny statement applies, causing the upload to fail.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often assume a Deny without a matching Allow automatically blocks all requests, but they overlook that the Deny only applies when the condition is met; however, in this case, the condition is met because the request lacks the required encryption headers, so the Deny is triggered.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because the policy denies PutObject when encryption is not KMS, not just when encryption is not KMS; the condition also requires a specific key ID, so any upload without the correct encryption headers is denied. Option B is wrong because the bucket policy is syntactically valid (it has proper Sid, Effect, Principal, Action, Resource, and Condition blocks) and is not malformed. Option D is wrong because the AWS CLI does not automatically apply KMS encryption with a specific key ID by default; without explicit encryption parameters, the request lacks the required headers and is denied by the policy.

Full explanation →

1337

MCQmedium

A company is using AWS Lambda functions to process data from an SQS queue. The Lambda function sometimes fails due to transient errors, but the messages are not being retried. Which configuration should the company check to ensure proper retry behavior?

A.Configure the Lambda function's dead-letter queue (DLQ)

B.Adjust the Maximum retries setting in the Lambda event source mapping

C.Set the SQS queue's redrive policy maxReceiveCount to a higher value

D.Increase the SQS queue's Default visibility timeout

AnswerB

This setting directly controls how many times Lambda retries failed messages from SQS.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because Lambda's event source mapping for SQS has a 'Maximum retries' setting (default 3) that controls how many times Lambda will retry a failed message batch. Option A is wrong because the SQS queue's 'Default visibility timeout' affects how long a message is hidden after being received, not the number of retries. Option B is wrong because the 'maxReceiveCount' is a SQS redrive policy property, not directly for Lambda retries.

Option C is wrong because the DLQ property is for sending failed messages to a dead-letter queue, not for controlling retry count.

Full explanation →

1338

Multi-Selectmedium

A company is designing a new microservices architecture using Amazon ECS with Fargate. The services need to communicate with each other. Which THREE mechanisms can be used for service-to-service communication? (Choose THREE.)

Select 3 answers

A.Amazon SQS queues between services

B.Amazon API Gateway as a front end

C.Application Load Balancer (ALB) as a service mesh

D.AWS Cloud Map service discovery

E.Amazon DynamoDB as a communication channel

AnswersB, C, D

API Gateway can route to internal services.

Why this answer

Options A, B, and C are correct because service discovery, ALB, and API Gateway are common patterns for service communication. Option D is incorrect because SQS is for asynchronous messaging, not direct communication. Option E is incorrect because DynamoDB is a database, not a communication mechanism.

Full explanation →

1339

MCQhard

A company is designing a disaster recovery strategy for a multi-tier application hosted on AWS. The application uses Amazon RDS for MySQL with Multi-AZ deployment. The Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is 15 minutes and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is 1 hour. Which solution meets these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?

A.Configure a Cross-Region Read Replica of the RDS instance and promote it during disaster.

B.Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to continuously replicate data to a standby RDS instance in another region.

C.Take automated snapshots every hour and copy them to another region. Restore from snapshot during disaster.

D.Use RDS Multi-AZ in a different region.

AnswerA

Cross-Region Read Replicas provide low RPO and fast failover.

Why this answer

Using Cross-Region Read Replicas for RDS MySQL allows automatic replication with an RPO of seconds and failover in minutes, meeting the requirements with minimal overhead.

Full explanation →

1340

Multi-Selecteasy

A company is designing a new VPC for a web application that must be accessible from the internet. The application will run on EC2 instances in private subnets. Which TWO components are required to allow the EC2 instances to access the internet for updates?

Select 2 answers

A.A route table in the private subnet with a default route pointing to the NAT Gateway

B.An Internet Gateway attached to the VPC

C.A NAT Gateway in a public subnet

D.VPC Flow Logs

E.A virtual private gateway

AnswersA, C

The route table directs traffic to the NAT Gateway.

Why this answer

Option A is correct because a route table in the private subnet with a default route (0.0.0.0/0) pointing to a NAT Gateway is required to direct outbound internet traffic from the EC2 instances to the NAT Gateway. The NAT Gateway then forwards this traffic to the Internet Gateway, enabling the instances to download updates while remaining inaccessible from the internet.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often assume an Internet Gateway alone suffices for all internet access, forgetting that instances in private subnets require a NAT device (NAT Gateway or NAT Instance) to translate their private IPs for outbound traffic.

Full explanation →

1341

MCQhard

A company has a multi-account AWS environment with a centralized logging account. The security team wants to ensure that all VPC Flow Logs from all accounts are delivered to a central Amazon S3 bucket in the logging account. The logs must be encrypted at rest using AWS KMS. The company currently uses AWS Organizations. Which solution meets these requirements with the least operational overhead?

A.Create a bucket in the logging account with default S3-managed encryption and enable VPC Flow Logs in each account to publish to that bucket.

B.Create a bucket in the logging account with a KMS key. Grant the necessary permissions to the VPC Flow Logs service in each account to write to that bucket using the KMS key. Enable VPC Flow Logs in each account to publish to the central bucket.

C.Create a bucket in each account with KMS encryption and use S3 Cross-Region Replication to copy logs to the central bucket.

D.Use Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose in each account to stream logs to a central S3 bucket with KMS encryption.

AnswerB

Direct delivery to central bucket with KMS encryption.

Why this answer

Option B is correct because it uses a central S3 bucket in the logging account with a customer-managed KMS key, which satisfies the encryption-at-rest requirement. By granting the VPC Flow Logs service principal in each account the necessary permissions to write to the central bucket and use the KMS key, logs are delivered directly without additional infrastructure. This approach minimizes operational overhead by avoiding replication, streaming services, or per-account bucket management.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates may overlook the KMS encryption requirement and choose Option A with SSE-S3, or assume that cross-account delivery requires complex replication or streaming services, when in fact VPC Flow Logs support direct cross-account S3 delivery with proper bucket and KMS key policies.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because S3-managed encryption (SSE-S3) does not use AWS KMS, failing the explicit requirement for KMS encryption. Option C is wrong because it requires creating a bucket in each account and using S3 Cross-Region Replication, which adds complexity, cost, and potential replication delays, increasing operational overhead. Option D is wrong because it introduces Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose in each account, which adds unnecessary infrastructure and cost compared to direct VPC Flow Logs delivery to S3.

Full explanation →

1342

MCQhard

A company runs a containerized microservices application on Amazon ECS with Fargate launch type. The application experiences intermittent latency spikes. The team wants to capture network traffic between containers for troubleshooting. Which solution should they implement?

A.Enable AWS X-Ray tracing on the ECS tasks.

B.Configure the awslogs driver to send container logs to CloudWatch Logs.

C.Use Amazon ECS Exec to access containers and run tcpdump.

D.Enable VPC Flow Logs on the ENIs attached to the ECS tasks.

AnswerD

Flow Logs capture IP traffic metadata.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because using Amazon ECS task networking with VPC and enabling VPC Flow Logs captures network traffic metadata. Option A is wrong because AWS X-Ray captures application-level traces, not network packets. Option B is wrong because CloudWatch Logs agent captures logs, not network traffic.

Option C is wrong because ECS Exec allows shell access but not traffic capture.

Full explanation →

1343

MCQmedium

A company is designing a new application that will process streaming data from IoT devices. They need to ingest data in real time and apply transformations before storing it in Amazon S3. Which AWS service should they use?

A.Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose

B.Amazon SQS

C.Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics

D.AWS Lambda

AnswerC

Kinesis Data Analytics processes streaming data in real time.

Why this answer

Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics (now part of Amazon Managed Service for Apache Flink) is the correct choice because the question explicitly requires applying transformations to streaming data in real time before storing it in Amazon S3. Kinesis Data Analytics allows you to run SQL or Apache Flink applications directly on streaming data to perform transformations, aggregations, and filtering, and then output the results to a destination like Amazon S3 via Kinesis Data Firehose.

Exam trap

The trap here is that candidates often confuse Kinesis Data Firehose's ability to deliver data to S3 with the need for real-time transformations, overlooking that Firehose only supports basic transformations and not the complex, stateful stream processing that Kinesis Data Analytics provides.

How to eliminate wrong answers

Option A is wrong because Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose is a delivery service that can load streaming data into S3, but it only supports basic transformations (e.g., Lambda-based or built-in data format conversion) and cannot perform complex, real-time analytics or multi-step transformations natively. Option B is wrong because Amazon SQS is a message queue service for decoupling application components; it does not provide real-time data processing or transformation capabilities, nor does it directly integrate with S3 for streaming ingestion. Option D is wrong because AWS Lambda can process streaming data but is not designed for continuous, stateful stream processing; it has a maximum execution timeout of 15 minutes and is better suited for event-driven, short-lived tasks rather than persistent real-time transformations on unbounded streams.

Full explanation →

1344

MCQmedium

A company is designing a new application that requires a relational database. The application has variable workloads with predictable spikes. The company wants to minimize costs while ensuring that the database can handle the spikes. Which Amazon RDS feature should the company use?

A.RDS Storage Auto Scaling

B.Read Replicas

C.RDS Proxy

D.Multi-AZ deployment

AnswerA

Storage Auto Scaling automatically increases storage when needed, but for compute spikes, use RDS Auto Scaling for instance scaling (if using Aurora). Actually, for RDS, use RDS Auto Scaling with Aurora or provisioned IOPS. But for standard RDS, use RDS Storage Auto Scaling. However, for compute spikes, use Aurora Auto Scaling. The best answer is RDS with Auto Scaling (compute) for Aurora. Since Aurora is not specified, but the question says RDS, the best is to use Aurora with Auto Scaling. Option C is correct if we interpret as Aurora Auto Scaling.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because RDS Auto Scaling automatically adjusts storage or compute capacity based on demand. Option A is for disaster recovery. Option B provides high availability but does not handle variable workloads.

Option D is for global scaling.

Full explanation →

1345

MCQhard

A company is designing a new application that must meet PCI DSS compliance requirements. The application will process credit card transactions and store encrypted data. Which AWS service should be used to manage the encryption keys?

A.AWS CloudHSM

B.AWS Key Management Service (KMS)

C.AWS Secrets Manager

D.Amazon S3 server-side encryption (SSE-S3)

AnswerA

Dedicated HSM for compliance with PCI DSS.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because AWS CloudHSM provides dedicated hardware security modules (HSMs) that meet PCI DSS requirements for key management. Option A (SSE-S3) is for S3. Option B (KMS) is managed but not dedicated HSM.

Option C (Secrets Manager) is for secrets, not encryption keys.

Full explanation →

1346

MCQmedium

A company is deploying a containerized application on Amazon ECS with Fargate. The application needs to store session state data that must be highly available and low latency. The data is accessed frequently and can be recreated if lost. Which storage solution should the solutions architect recommend?

A.Store session state in Amazon DynamoDB.

B.Store session state in Amazon S3.

C.Store session state in Amazon ElastiCache for Redis.

D.Store session state in Amazon EFS.

AnswerC

ElastiCache for Redis provides ultra-low latency in-memory storage, ideal for session state that can be recreated.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because ElastiCache for Redis provides in-memory storage with low latency and high availability. Session state can be recreated if lost. Option A is incorrect because S3 has higher latency and is not designed for low-latency session storage.

Option B is incorrect because DynamoDB is durable and over-provisioned for this use case; it's also more expensive. Option C is incorrect because EFS is file storage and has higher latency for in-memory session state.

Full explanation →

1347

MCQmedium

A company uses AWS Organizations with multiple OUs. The security team needs to ensure that no EC2 instances are launched without an approved Amazon Machine Image (AMI) ID from a central list. The list changes frequently. What is the MOST scalable way to enforce this?

A.Use AWS CloudFormation StackSets to deploy AMI approval rules via EC2 launch templates.

B.Use an SCP that denies ec2:RunInstances unless the AMI has a specific tag (e.g., "Approved":"true"). Central team tags approved AMIs.

C.Use AWS Config with a custom rule that triggers a Lambda function to terminate non-compliant instances.

D.Create an IAM policy condition that only allows ec2:RunInstances if the AMI ID matches a list in the condition.

AnswerB

SCPs can enforce tagging conditions centrally, and tags are easy to manage.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because SCPs can conditionally deny actions based on tags, and you can use a tag on approved AMIs. Option A (Config rule + Lambda) can only remediate after launch. Option B (IAM condition) requires updating policies per account.

Option D (CloudFormation) is not real-time and cannot prevent manual launches.

Full explanation →

1348

MCQhard

A startup is designing a data lake on AWS using Amazon S3. They expect to ingest hundreds of terabytes of data from IoT devices daily. Data is in JSON format and will be queried using Amazon Athena. Which combination of actions will optimize query performance and minimize costs?

A.Store data as gzip-compressed JSON in S3, partition by device_id, and use Athena with compression.

B.Convert data to Parquet, partition by date, and use S3 Intelligent-Tiering.

C.Convert data to Parquet format, partition by year/month/day, and use S3 Standard storage.

D.Store data as Parquet in S3 Glacier Deep Archive, unpartitioned, and query with Athena.

AnswerB

Parquet reduces scan, partitioning limits data, Intelligent-Tiering optimizes cost.

Why this answer

Option D is correct because partitioning by date reduces scanned data, Parquet is columnar and compressed, and S3 Intelligent-Tiering optimizes costs. Option A is incorrect because Gzip is not as efficient as Parquet. Option B is incorrect because partitioning by device_id creates too many small partitions.

Option C is incorrect because Glacier retrieval costs are high for frequent queries.

Full explanation →

1349

MCQhard

Refer to the exhibit. A company has an S3 bucket policy that requires server-side encryption with AES256 for all objects uploaded. However, users can still upload objects without encryption. What is the MOST likely reason?

A.S3 bucket policies cannot enforce encryption; you must use bucket default encryption

B.The condition key is incorrect; it should be s3:x-amz-server-side-encryption-aws-kms-key-id

C.The policy does not apply to objects uploaded using AWS KMS managed keys

D.The policy does not deny requests that omit the encryption header

AnswerD

If no encryption header is present, the condition evaluates to false, so Deny does not apply.

Why this answer

Option C is correct because the policy has a Deny with a condition but also an Allow with the same condition. The Allow statement effectively overrides the Deny because the Deny only applies when encryption is not AES256, but the Allow applies when encryption is AES256. However, the issue is that the Deny statement is not denying all non-compliant uploads because the Allow statement is too permissive.

Actually, the correct interpretation: The Deny statement denies PutObject when encryption is not AES256. The Allow statement allows PutObject when encryption is AES256. However, without the Allow, the default is implicit deny.

The Allow statement is redundant but not harmful. The problem might be that the policy is missing a condition to also require encryption for existing objects? But the real issue is that the policy does not deny requests that do not include the encryption header at all. The condition "StringNotEquals" only matches when the header is present but not equal to AES256.

If no encryption header is present, the condition evaluates to true because the value is not present? Actually, if the header is missing, the condition key does not exist, and the condition evaluates to false. So the Deny does not apply when no encryption header is present. Therefore, users can upload without encryption.

Option C correctly identifies this: the policy does not deny requests that omit the encryption header. Option A is incorrect because bucket policy can enforce encryption. Option B is incorrect because the condition is correct.

Option D is incorrect because AWS managed keys are not relevant.

Full explanation →

1350

MCQeasy

A company is moving its application from on-premises to AWS. They want to use the same third-party software licenses on AWS. Which AWS purchasing option allows them to bring their own licenses?

A.Savings Plans

B.Dedicated Hosts

C.Spot Instances

D.Reserved Instances

AnswerB

Allows you to use existing licenses per socket/core.

Why this answer

Option D (Dedicated Hosts) is correct because it provides visibility and control over physical servers, allowing you to use your own licenses per socket/core. Option A (Reserved Instances) is just a billing discount. Option B (Savings Plans) also a discount.

Option C (Spot Instances) are interruptible.

Full explanation →

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