← SAP-C02·Amazon Web Services

Question 1,499 of 1,746

Design for New Solutions →hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question

This SAP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of design for new solutions. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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 runs a high-traffic e-commerce platform on AWS. The application consists of a web tier, an application tier, and a database tier using Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL with Multi-AZ. During a recent sales event, the database experienced high CPU utilization and read replicas were added to offload read traffic. However, the application team noticed that some product detail pages were showing stale data (prices and inventory levels) even though the primary database had the correct data. The application uses read replicas for read queries. The solutions architect investigated and found that the read replica lag was minimal (under 1 second). The application uses Django ORM with default transaction isolation. What is the most likely cause of the stale data?

Clue words in this question

Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.

Clue: "most likely"
Why it matters: Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
Clue: "primary"
Why it matters: Asks for the main purpose or function, not a secondary benefit. Eliminate answers that describe side-effects or partial functions.

A
The Multi-AZ standby was promoted due to a failover, causing a brief inconsistency.
Why wrong: Multi-AZ failover is for high availability and would not cause ongoing stale reads.
B
The application is not using a connection pool, causing connections to be established to different replicas.
Why wrong: Connection pooling does not affect consistency; the issue is eventual consistency.
C
The application is reading from read replicas, which are eventually consistent, and the data may be stale if the replica has not yet applied changes from the primary.
Read replicas are eventually consistent; for critical data, the application should read from the primary.
D
The read replica is using a different storage type (Aurora I/O-Optimized) than the primary.
Why wrong: They are using RDS PostgreSQL, not Aurora.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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

✓

The application is reading from read replicas, which are eventually consistent, and the data may be stale if the replica has not yet applied changes from the primary.

The issue is that read replicas in Amazon RDS operate with eventual consistency. Although the replica lag was minimal, there is still a window where a read from a replica may return data that has not yet been applied from the primary. For critical data like prices and inventory, the application should read from the primary database to ensure strong consistency. Option A is incorrect because Multi-AZ standby is for high availability, not read consistency. Option B is incorrect because connection pooling addresses connection overhead, not consistency. Option D is incorrect because storage type does not affect consistency.

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.

✗
The Multi-AZ standby was promoted due to a failover, causing a brief inconsistency.
Why it's wrong here
Multi-AZ failover is for high availability and would not cause ongoing stale reads.
✗
The application is not using a connection pool, causing connections to be established to different replicas.
Why it's wrong here
Connection pooling does not affect consistency; the issue is eventual consistency.
✓
The application is reading from read replicas, which are eventually consistent, and the data may be stale if the replica has not yet applied changes from the primary.
Why this is correct
Read replicas are eventually consistent; for critical data, the application should read from the primary.
Clue confirmation
The clue words "most likely", "primary" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
The read replica is using a different storage type (Aurora I/O-Optimized) than the primary.
Why it's wrong here
They are using RDS PostgreSQL, not Aurora.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.

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.
Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.

TExam Day Tips

Underline the problem statement mentally.
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.

Quick reference

AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison

Storage Class	Min Duration	Retrieval	Use Case
S3 Standard	None	Immediate	Frequently accessed data
S3 Standard-IA	30 days	Immediate	Infrequent access, rapid retrieval
S3 One Zone-IA	30 days	Immediate	Non-critical infrequent data
S3 Intelligent-Tiering	None	Immediate–hours	Unknown or changing access patterns
S3 Glacier Instant	90 days	Milliseconds	Archive with instant retrieval
S3 Glacier Flexible	90 days	Minutes–hours	Archive, flexible retrieval
S3 Glacier Deep Archive	180 days	Hours	Long-term compliance archive

What to study next

Got this wrong? Here's your next step.

Identify which SAP-C02 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.

Related SAP-C02 practice-question pages

Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.

Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity practice questions

Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to Design Solutions for Organizational Complexity.

Design for New Solutions practice questions

Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to Design for New Solutions.

Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions practice questions

Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions.

Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization practice questions

Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to Accelerate Workload Migration and Modernization.

SAA-C03 VPC practice questions

Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to SAA-C03 VPC.

SAA-C03 S3 lifecycle policy questions

Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to SAA-C03 S3 lifecycle policy questions.

SAA-C03 RDS Multi-AZ questions

Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to SAA-C03 RDS Multi-AZ questions.

SAA-C03 IAM policy practice questions

Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to SAA-C03 IAM policy.

SAA-C03 Route 53 failover questions

Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to SAA-C03 Route 53 failover questions.

SAA-C03 CloudFront practice questions

Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to SAA-C03 CloudFront.

SAA-C03 NAT gateway questions

Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to SAA-C03 NAT gateway questions.

SAA-C03 VPC endpoint questions

Practise SAP-C02 questions linked to SAA-C03 VPC endpoint questions.

Practice this exam

Start a free SAP-C02 practice session

Short sessions build daily habit. Longer sessions build exam-day stamina. Try a timed session to simulate real conditions.

10 questions 20 questions 30 questions 50 questions Timed 30

SAP-C02 practice-test guide →Study guide →Browse all practice tests

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: The application is reading from read replicas, which are eventually consistent, and the data may be stale if the replica has not yet applied changes from the primary. — The issue is that read replicas in Amazon RDS operate with eventual consistency. Although the replica lag was minimal, there is still a window where a read from a replica may return data that has not yet been applied from the primary. For critical data like prices and inventory, the application should read from the primary database to ensure strong consistency. Option A is incorrect because Multi-AZ standby is for high availability, not read consistency. Option B is incorrect because connection pooling addresses connection overhead, not consistency. Option D is incorrect because storage type does not affect consistency.

What should I do if I get this SAP-C02 question wrong?

Are there clue words in this question I should notice?

Yes — watch for: "most likely", "primary". Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.

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 →

How Courseiva writes practice questions · Editorial policy

Keep practising

Question Discussion

Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.

Loading comments…

This SAP-C02 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the SAP-C02 exam.