PAS-C01 Operations and Maintenance Practice Question
A company uses AWS CloudFormation to manage infrastructure. During an update, a stack fails to roll back and is left in UPDATE_ROLLBACK_FAILED state. The stack contains a DynamoDB table and a Lambda function. The operations team needs to fix the stack with minimal disruption. What should they do?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often assume the only way to recover from a failed rollback is to delete the stack or manually fix the resource, but AWS provides the ContinueUpdateRollback API specifically to handle this state with minimal disruption.
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 the ContinueUpdateRollback API to resume the rollback.
When a CloudFormation stack is in UPDATE_ROLLBACK_FAILED state, the recommended recovery action is to use the ContinueUpdateRollback API (or the AWS Management Console equivalent). This API instructs CloudFormation to skip the resources that failed to roll back and continue rolling back the remaining resources, bringing the stack to a consistent UPDATE_ROLLBACK_COMPLETE state. This approach minimizes disruption because it does not require deleting the stack or manually intervening with the DynamoDB table or Lambda function.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Manually delete the DynamoDB table and then retry the stack update.
Why it's wrong here
Manual deletion may cause data loss and does not resolve the rollback state.
- ✗
Delete the stack and recreate it from the template.
Why it's wrong here
Deleting the stack removes all resources, including the DynamoDB table with data.
- ✓
Use the ContinueUpdateRollback API to resume the rollback.
Why this is correct
This allows CloudFormation to retry rolling back the failed resource.
- ✗
Update the stack again with a different change set to bypass the failed resource.
Why it's wrong here
Updating again is not possible while the stack is in UPDATE_ROLLBACK_FAILED state.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PAS-C01 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 PAS-C01 exam.