This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of reliability and business continuity. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. 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 critical web application on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer in a single Availability Zone. To improve reliability, what is the MOST effective design change?
Place the RDS database in a Multi-AZ deployment.
Why wrong: Only addresses database, not web tier.
Add a second Application Load Balancer in the same Availability Zone.
Why wrong: Does not protect against AZ failure.
Increase the EC2 instance size to handle more traffic.
Why wrong: Scaling up does not protect against AZ failure.
Launch EC2 instances across two or more Availability Zones.
Eliminates single point of failure at AZ level.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Launch EC2 instances across two or more Availability Zones.
Option C is correct because deploying instances across multiple Availability Zones eliminates a single point of failure and is a fundamental high-availability design. Option A is wrong because increasing instance size does not provide fault tolerance. Option B is wrong because a Multi-AZ RDS instance improves database reliability but does not address the web tier's single AZ risk. Option D is wrong because an additional load balancer in the same AZ does not protect against AZ failure.
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
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Place the RDS database in a Multi-AZ deployment.
Why it's wrong here
Only addresses database, not web tier.
Add a second Application Load Balancer in the same Availability Zone.
Why it's wrong here
Does not protect against AZ failure.
Increase the EC2 instance size to handle more traffic.
Why it's wrong here
Scaling up does not protect against AZ failure.
Launch EC2 instances across two or more Availability Zones.
Why this is correct
Eliminates single point of failure at AZ level.
Related concept
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
Common exam traps
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
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.
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
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.
What to study next
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 SOA-C02 NAT questions on configuration and troubleshooting.
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FAQ
Reliability and Business Continuity — This question tests Reliability and Business Continuity — Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address..
The correct answer is: Launch EC2 instances across two or more Availability Zones. — Option C is correct because deploying instances across multiple Availability Zones eliminates a single point of failure and is a fundamental high-availability design. Option A is wrong because increasing instance size does not provide fault tolerance. Option B is wrong because a Multi-AZ RDS instance improves database reliability but does not address the web tier's single AZ risk. Option D is wrong because an additional load balancer in the same AZ does not protect against AZ failure.
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 SOA-C02 NAT questions on configuration and troubleshooting.
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
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Last reviewed: Jun 20, 2026
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