- A
Use Amazon RDS with cross-Region read replicas and promote the replica to a primary instance in a disaster.
Cross-Region read replicas use asynchronous replication with minimal lag, and can be promoted quickly, meeting the RPO/RTO requirements.
- B
Use Amazon Aurora Global Database.
Why wrong: Aurora Global Database is for Aurora, not RDS MySQL.
- C
Use Amazon RDS with automated backups and restore in another Region.
Why wrong: Restoring from backup would take longer than 1 minute, not meeting the RTO.
- D
Use Amazon RDS Multi-AZ with a standby in a different AWS Region.
Why wrong: RDS Multi-AZ only supports standby in the same region, not cross-region.
Question 1,565 of 1,746
Achieve <5 Second RPO and <1 Minute RTO with RDS Cross-Region Read Replicas
This SAP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of design for new solutions. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company is designing a multi-region disaster recovery solution for a critical application using Amazon RDS for MySQL. They need a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of less than 5 seconds and a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of less than 1 minute. Which solution should they choose?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use Amazon RDS with cross-Region read replicas and promote the replica to a primary instance in a disaster.
Amazon RDS for MySQL cross-Region read replicas use asynchronous replication with a typical lag of less than 5 seconds, meeting the RPO requirement. In a disaster, you promote the replica to a standalone primary instance, which takes under 1 minute, satisfying the RTO. This is the only option that provides both sub-5-second RPO and sub-1-minute RTO for RDS MySQL.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use Amazon RDS with cross-Region read replicas and promote the replica to a primary instance in a disaster.
Why this is correct
Cross-Region read replicas use asynchronous replication with minimal lag, and can be promoted quickly, meeting the RPO/RTO requirements.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Use Amazon Aurora Global Database.
Why it's wrong here
Aurora Global Database is for Aurora, not RDS MySQL.
- ✗
Use Amazon RDS with automated backups and restore in another Region.
Why it's wrong here
Restoring from backup would take longer than 1 minute, not meeting the RTO.
- ✗
Use Amazon RDS Multi-AZ with a standby in a different AWS Region.
Why it's wrong here
RDS Multi-AZ only supports standby in the same region, not cross-region.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse Amazon Aurora Global Database (which is not available for RDS MySQL) with RDS cross-Region replicas, or assume Multi-AZ can be configured across Regions, which is technically impossible.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Cross-Region read replicas for RDS MySQL use MySQL's native asynchronous replication (binlog-based), where the replica continuously applies changes from the source. The typical replication lag is under 5 seconds in healthy configurations, but can spike under heavy write loads; monitoring with the `ReplicaLag` CloudWatch metric is critical. Promotion to a primary instance involves a simple API call or console action that completes in seconds, but DNS propagation and application reconnection may add a few seconds to the RTO.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SAP-C02 question test?
Design for New Solutions — This question tests Design for New Solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use Amazon RDS with cross-Region read replicas and promote the replica to a primary instance in a disaster. — Amazon RDS for MySQL cross-Region read replicas use asynchronous replication with a typical lag of less than 5 seconds, meeting the RPO requirement. In a disaster, you promote the replica to a standalone primary instance, which takes under 1 minute, satisfying the RTO. This is the only option that provides both sub-5-second RPO and sub-1-minute RTO for RDS MySQL.
What should I do if I get this SAP-C02 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Same concept, more angles
3 more ways this is tested on SAP-C02
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company is designing a disaster recovery solution for a critical database using Amazon RDS Multi-AZ. However, they also need to protect against regional failures. Which additional AWS service should they use?
hard- A.RDS Multi-AZ in the same region
- ✓ B.RDS Cross-Region Read Replicas
- C.Amazon S3
- D.AWS Database Migration Service
Why B: RDS Multi-AZ provides high availability within a single region by synchronously replicating data to a standby instance in a different Availability Zone. To protect against a regional failure, you need a cross-region disaster recovery solution. RDS Cross-Region Read Replicas asynchronously replicate data to a different AWS Region, allowing you to promote the replica to a standalone primary database in the event of a regional outage.
Variation 2. A company is designing a new multi-region disaster recovery solution for a critical database. The database runs on Amazon RDS for MySQL in us-east-1. The recovery point objective (RPO) is 1 second, and the recovery time objective (RTO) is 1 minute. Which strategy meets these requirements?
hard- A.Single-AZ RDS instance with cross-Region snapshot copy
- B.Multi-AZ RDS instance in us-east-1
- ✓ C.Multi-AZ RDS instance with a cross-Region read replica in us-west-2
- D.Amazon Aurora Global Database
Why C: Option C is correct because a Multi-AZ RDS instance with a cross-Region read replica in us-west-2 can achieve an RPO of 1 second and an RTO of 1 minute. The cross-Region read replica uses asynchronous replication with a typical lag of less than 1 second, meeting the RPO. For RTO, you can promote the read replica to a standalone instance in under a minute, and the Multi-AZ configuration in the primary region ensures high availability during the promotion process.
Variation 3. A company is designing a new multi-region disaster recovery solution for a critical application running on AWS. The primary region is us-east-1. The application uses Amazon RDS for MySQL with Multi-AZ, and runs on EC2 instances behind an ALB. The RPO must be less than 5 minutes, and RTO less than 30 minutes. The company wants to minimize costs when the DR solution is not in use. Which solution should a Solutions Architect recommend?
hard- A.Use RDS MySQL with cross-Region read replicas in us-west-2. Use a hot standby EC2 environment with a single instance. Use Route 53 failover routing.
- B.Back up RDS MySQL to S3 using automated snapshots and copy them to us-west-2. Use EC2 instances with S3-mounted volumes to serve traffic from the backup.
- C.Use RDS MySQL with Multi-AZ in us-east-1 and a second Multi-AZ deployment in us-west-2. Keep EC2 instances running in us-west-2 behind an ALB with cross-Region load balancing.
- ✓ D.Set up an RDS MySQL cross-Region read replica in us-west-2. Keep a standby EC2 environment with Auto Scaling configured to scale from 0 to minimum instances using a CloudWatch alarm on health checks. Use Route 53 failover routing to switch DNS to us-west-2.
Why D: The correct answer is D. Option D meets the RPO of less than 5 minutes because RDS cross-Region read replicas use asynchronous replication with a typical lag of seconds. It meets the RTO of less than 30 minutes because the read replica can be promoted to a standalone primary in minutes. The standby EC2 environment with Auto Scaling set to 0 (scaling up based on health check alarms) minimizes cost when not in use. Route 53 failover routing redirects traffic to us-west-2 after promotion. Option A is incorrect because a single hot standby EC2 instance incurs ongoing cost, and it does not meet the cost minimization requirement. Option B is incorrect because automated snapshots have an RPO of up to 24 hours (not <5 minutes), and restoring to S3-mounted volumes is not a functional database serving solution. Option C is incorrect because Multi-AZ in both regions is costly (always running instances) and cross-Region load balancing with ALB is not a native feature for failover; plus Multi-AZ does not provide a separate read replica in another region for DR without additional replication.
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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