PAS-C01 Design of SAP Workloads on AWS Practice Question
This PAS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of design of sap workloads on aws. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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 SAP on AWS with an SAP HANA database on an r5.8xlarge instance. The company notices high network latency between the SAP application servers and the HANA database. The application servers are in the same VPC but different subnets. Which design change would MOST effectively reduce latency?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Launch the application servers and the HANA database in the same placement group.
Option A is correct because placing both the SAP application servers and the HANA database in the same cluster placement group ensures they are in close physical proximity within a single Availability Zone, minimizing network hops and reducing latency. Placement groups achieve this by co-locating instances on the same high-bandwidth, low-latency network fabric, which is critical for SAP HANA's real-time data processing requirements.
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.
✓
Launch the application servers and the HANA database in the same placement group.
Why this is correct
Placement groups provide low-latency, high-bandwidth connectivity between instances.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Create a VPC peering connection between the subnets of the application servers and the database.
Why it's wrong here
VPC peering is for cross-VPC connectivity; within the same VPC, it is not applicable.
✗
Change the HANA database instance type to a compute-optimized instance such as c5.9xlarge.
Why it's wrong here
Instance type change does not directly reduce network latency.
✗
Enable Enhanced Networking on the application servers by attaching an Elastic Network Adapter (ENA).
Why it's wrong here
Enhanced Networking is already enabled on current generation instances; this may not reduce latency further.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse Enhanced Networking (which improves throughput and CPU efficiency) with reducing latency, when in fact latency is dominated by physical distance and network hops, which only placement groups can address.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
A cluster placement group uses a low-latency, 10 Gbps or 25 Gbps network backbone within a single Availability Zone, ensuring that all instances are within a single rack or set of adjacent racks. For SAP HANA, where sub-millisecond latency is required for column-store operations, even a single additional network hop (e.g., crossing a subnet router) can introduce measurable delay. Placement groups bypass this by guaranteeing co-location at the hypervisor level, which is not achievable with standard subnet placement.
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
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Design of SAP Workloads on AWS — This question tests Design of SAP Workloads on AWS — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Launch the application servers and the HANA database in the same placement group. — Option A is correct because placing both the SAP application servers and the HANA database in the same cluster placement group ensures they are in close physical proximity within a single Availability Zone, minimizing network hops and reducing latency. Placement groups achieve this by co-locating instances on the same high-bandwidth, low-latency network fabric, which is critical for SAP HANA's real-time data processing requirements.
What should I do if I get this PAS-C01 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.
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Question Discussion
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