SOA-C02 Networking and Content Delivery Practice Question
A company has an EC2 instance that needs to have a static public IP address that does not change even if the instance is stopped and started. Which AWS resource should be attached to the instance?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is confusing private and public IPs — candidates might think a static private IP (Option D) provides public accessibility, but only Elastic IPs offer static public addressing.
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
✓
An Elastic IP address
An Elastic IP address is a static, public IPv4 address designed for dynamic cloud computing. When associated with an EC2 instance, it remains fixed even if the instance is stopped and started, unlike automatically assigned public IPs which change on stop/start. This meets the requirement for a static public IP.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
An Elastic IP address
Why this is correct
An Elastic IP address is a static public IPv4 address allocated to your AWS account that persists until you explicitly release it. Unlike an automatically assigned public IP, an EIP can be associated with an instance and remains fixed across instance stops, starts, and replacements. You can also remap it to another instance in the same region, making it the correct way to give an EC2 instance a permanent public endpoint.
- ✗
An automatically assigned public IP address
Why it's wrong here
An automatically assigned public IP address is selected from Amazon's pool of public addresses and attached to an instance only at launch. If the instance is stopped or terminated, this public IP is released back into the pool and cannot be reused, so the address changes on the next start. Thus, it is neither static nor reliably persistent, and does not meet the requirement for a static public IP.
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A secondary private IP address
Why it's wrong here
A secondary private IP address is a private IPv4 address drawn from your VPC CIDR range, not from the public Internet range. It is used for internal network segmentation and multi-homing, and by default is not reachable from the Internet without additional components like an Internet Gateway and a public IP or NAT. Merely assigning a secondary private IP does not provide a public address, so it cannot serve as a static public IP.
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A static private IP address
Why it's wrong here
Even though the primary private IP of an EC2 instance in a VPC typically remains constant for the life of the instance, it is fundamentally a private address within the VPC. The Internet cannot route directly to a private IP; traffic must traverse an Internet Gateway or NAT Gateway, and the instance must still have a public IP or an Elastic IP associated with it to respond to external requests. Therefore, a static private IP alone does not give the instance a public endpoint.
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
This SOA-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 SOA-C02 exam.