Question 1hardmultiple choice
Full question →hardmultiple choiceObjective-mapped
A company runs a production Amazon DynamoDB table with provisioned capacity of 1000 write capacity units (WCU). The table experiences unpredictable spikes up to 2000 WCU, causing throttling. The SysOps administrator wants to minimize cost while handling the spikes. Which solution should be used?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
A
Best answer
Switch to on-demand capacity mode.
On-demand mode instantly accommodates usage spikes without capacity planning. While typically more expensive for steady-state workloads, for unpredictable spikes it can be cost-effective because you don't pay for unused capacity. It eliminates throttling.
B
Distractor review
Increase provisioned WCU to 2000 to cover the peak.
Paying for 2000 WCU at all times is wasteful because the average usage is likely much lower. This would increase costs significantly without a proportional benefit.
C
Distractor review
Enable DynamoDB Auto Scaling with minimum 1000, maximum 2000 WCU.
Auto Scaling adjusts capacity based on utilization, but it can take several minutes to scale up. Sudden spikes may cause throttling before capacity increases. It also requires careful configuration and does not guarantee no throttling.
D
Distractor review
Use a DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) cache.
DAX is an in-memory cache that improves read performance, not write capacity. It does not help with write throttling or scaling of write capacity.
Common exam trap
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.
Technical deep dive
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.
Related practice questions
Related SOA-C02 practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A company uses Amazon CloudFront to deliver content to a global audience. The origin is an Application Load Balancer in us-east-1. The SysOps administrator wants to reduce costs by minimizing the number of requests that reach the origin server. Which action should the administrator take?
Question 2
A company runs a batch processing application on Amazon EC2 that runs for 2 hours every night. The workload can tolerate interruptions. Which EC2 purchasing option provides the lowest cost for this use case?
Question 3
A SysOps administrator needs to monitor the CPU utilization of an Amazon RDS DB instance and receive an alarm when CPU utilization exceeds 80% for 5 consecutive minutes. Which AWS service should be used to create this alarm?
Question 4
A company runs a critical web application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The application uses session stickiness (sticky sessions) to maintain user sessions. The SysOps administrator notices that when instances are replaced during a scale-in or failure event, users lose their session data. The administrator needs to preserve session data across instance failures without losing stickiness benefits. What should the administrator do?
Question 5
A company runs a production web application on a single Amazon EC2 instance. The application experiences a predictable and steady workload 24/7. The SysOps administrator wants to minimize compute costs for this instance while ensuring it remains available during the expected workload. Which EC2 purchasing option should the administrator use?
Question 6
A company has a VPC with public and private subnets. The private subnets host application servers that need to make outbound HTTPS connections to the internet. The SysOps administrator must implement a solution that provides outbound internet connectivity while preventing inbound connections from the internet. Additionally, the solution must allow the company to control which domains the application servers can access. Which solution should the administrator implement?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SOA-C02 question test?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Switch to on-demand capacity mode. — On-demand capacity mode automatically scales to handle any traffic spikes and charges per request, which is ideal for unpredictable workloads. Provisioned capacity with auto scaling can work but may not react fast enough to sudden spikes, leading to throttling. Setting provisioned capacity to the peak (2000 WCU) would be expensive during low usage. DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) is a caching layer for reads, not writes. On-demand eliminates the need to guess capacity and is cost-effective for variable workloads, as you pay only for what you use.
What should I do if I get this SOA-C02 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
Discussion
Loading comments…
Sign in to join the discussion.