The answer is a health check path that returns a non-200 status periodically due to a short-lived issue, such as temporary resource exhaustion or a brief process hang within the SAP Web Dispatcher. This is correct because the ALB health check, configured with a 5-second interval and an unhealthy threshold of 5, requires 25 consecutive seconds of non-200 responses before marking an instance unhealthy. A transient glitch that lasts just a few seconds will not trigger this threshold, but if the issue recurs frequently enough to accumulate five failures within the check window, the instance flips to unhealthy, then recovers just as quickly, causing the intermittent failures the operations team observes. On the AWS Certified SAP on AWS Specialty PAS-C01 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how ALB health check thresholds interact with Auto Scaling group health checks and cooldown periods—a common trap is assuming the instances are being replaced, when in fact the ASG may not be set to ELB health checks, delaying replacement. Memory tip: think “5 strikes and you’re out, but only if they happen in a row.”
PAS-C01 Operations and Maintenance Practice Question
This PAS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of operations and maintenance. 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 SAP on AWS and uses an Application Load Balancer (ALB) to distribute traffic to a fleet of EC2 instances running SAP Web Dispatcher. The operations team notices that some instances are failing health checks intermittently. The ALB health check is configured with a 5-second interval, 2 healthy threshold, and 5 unhealthy threshold. The instances are all in the same Auto Scaling group. What is the most likely cause of the intermittent health check failures?
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.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The health check path returns a non-200 status periodically due to a short-lived issue
If the health check path returns a non-200 status due to a brief glitch (e.g., temporary resource exhaustion), the ALB will consider the instance unhealthy after 5 consecutive failures (25 seconds). The instances are not being replaced quickly because the Auto Scaling group health check type is likely not set to ELB, or the cooldown period delays replacement.
Key principle: NAT direction and interface roles matter as much as the IP address mapping. Inside/outside designation controls which traffic is translated.
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 Auto Scaling group health check grace period is too short
Why it's wrong here
A short grace period would cause early failures, but not intermittent failures after being healthy.
✗
The ALB health check interval is too long
Why it's wrong here
5 seconds is a standard interval; longer intervals would delay detection, not cause intermittent failures.
✗
The health check path returns a 200 status only when the application is fully loaded
Why it's wrong here
If the path requires full load, it would fail consistently, not intermittently.
✓
The health check path returns a non-200 status periodically due to a short-lived issue
Why this is correct
Intermittent short-lived issues cause temporary failures; the ALB marks the instance unhealthy after multiple consecutive failures.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "most likely" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
→Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
→Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
→Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
Key takeaway
NAT direction and interface roles matter as much as the IP address mapping. Inside/outside designation controls which traffic is translated.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. NAT direction and interface roles matter as much as the IP address mapping. Inside/outside designation controls which traffic is translated. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Review the four NAT address types (inside local, inside global, outside local, outside global), PAT port overload, and static vs dynamic NAT use cases. Then practise related PAS-C01 NAT questions on configuration and troubleshooting.
Operations and Maintenance — This question tests Operations and Maintenance — Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: The health check path returns a non-200 status periodically due to a short-lived issue — If the health check path returns a non-200 status due to a brief glitch (e.g., temporary resource exhaustion), the ALB will consider the instance unhealthy after 5 consecutive failures (25 seconds). The instances are not being replaced quickly because the Auto Scaling group health check type is likely not set to ELB, or the cooldown period delays replacement.
What should I do if I get this PAS-C01 question wrong?
Review the four NAT address types (inside local, inside global, outside local, outside global), PAT port overload, and static vs dynamic NAT use cases. Then practise related PAS-C01 NAT questions on configuration and troubleshooting.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "most likely". 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?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
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 →
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 runs SAP on AWS and uses an Application Load Balancer (ALB) to distribute traffic to a fleet of EC2 instances running SAP Web Dispatcher. The ALB has a target group with health checks configured on port 8080. Recently, the operations team noticed that some instances are being deregistered due to health check failures. The instances are healthy and the Web Dispatcher is running. The health check response time is consistently below 2 seconds. What is the most likely cause?
medium
✓ A.The health check interval is too short, causing the threshold to be exceeded.
B.The security group for the instances blocks inbound traffic from the internet.
C.The instances are running out of memory.
D.The health check path is incorrect.
Why A: Option B is correct because the health check threshold may be set too low, causing false positives. Option A is wrong because if the path were wrong, all health checks would fail. Option C is wrong because the ALB health checks come from its own IPs, not the internet. Option D is wrong if the instances are healthy.
Last reviewed: Jun 20, 2026
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.
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.
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.
Sign in to join the discussion.