SOA-C02 Reliability and Business Continuity Practice Question
This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of reliability and business continuity. 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 a production application on EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group. The application stores data on an EBS volume. The SysOps administrator wants to ensure that the data is durable and available even if an EC2 instance fails. Which approach should the administrator take?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Migrate the data to Amazon EFS and mount it to all instances.
Option C is correct because storing data on EFS provides a shared file system that persists independently of EC2 instances, and EFS is designed for high availability and durability. Option A is wrong because EBS volumes are tied to a single AZ and instance. Option B is wrong because instance store is ephemeral. Option D is wrong because S3 is object storage, not a file system.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Use an instance store volume and replicate data across instances.
Why it's wrong here
Instance store is ephemeral.
✗
Use an EBS volume with snapshots taken every hour.
Why it's wrong here
EBS is tied to an instance and AZ; snapshots are for backup, not real-time availability.
✗
Move the data to an S3 bucket and access it via S3 API.
Why it's wrong here
S3 is object storage, not a file system for applications.
✓
Migrate the data to Amazon EFS and mount it to all instances.
Why this is correct
EFS is a durable, highly available file system.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
→Underline the problem statement mentally.
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
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
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which SOA-C02 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
Reliability and Business Continuity — This question tests Reliability and Business Continuity — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Migrate the data to Amazon EFS and mount it to all instances. — Option C is correct because storing data on EFS provides a shared file system that persists independently of EC2 instances, and EFS is designed for high availability and durability. Option A is wrong because EBS volumes are tied to a single AZ and instance. Option B is wrong because instance store is ephemeral. Option D is wrong because S3 is object storage, not a file system.
What should I do if I get this SOA-C02 question wrong?
Identify which SOA-C02 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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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.
Question Discussion
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