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 stateless web application on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. The application is deployed in an Auto Scaling group with a minimum of 2 and maximum of 10 instances. During a traffic spike, the Auto Scaling group launches new instances, but the new instances are immediately marked as unhealthy by the ALB and terminated. What could be the cause? (Choose TWO.)
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "minimum / minimize"
Why it matters: Asks for the least resource use — fewest addresses, smallest subnet, lowest overhead. Eliminate over-provisioned options even if they would technically work.
Clue: "immediately / without restart"
Why it matters: Time or reboot constraint — the correct answer must take effect right away without requiring a reboot or reload.
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 is misconfigured.
Options B and D are correct. If the health check path is incorrect, the ALB marks instances as unhealthy. If the security group does not allow traffic from the ALB, the health check fails. Option A is wrong because a missing IAM role does not cause health check failures. Option C is wrong because insufficient capacity would prevent launch, not cause health check failures. Option E is wrong because a larger instance would not cause health check failures.
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 health check path is misconfigured.
Why this is correct
A misconfigured health check path causes the ALB to consider instances unhealthy.
Clue confirmation
The clue words "minimum / minimize", "immediately / without restart" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
✗
The Auto Scaling group does not have sufficient capacity in the target AZ.
Why it's wrong here
Insufficient capacity causes launch failure, not health check failure.
✗
The instances do not have the required IAM role to register with the ALB.
Why it's wrong here
IAM role is not required for health checks.
✓
The security group for the instances does not allow inbound traffic from the ALB.
Why this is correct
ALB health checks come from the ALB's source IPs; if blocked, health checks fail.
Clue confirmation
The clue words "minimum / minimize", "immediately / without restart" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
✗
The instances are launched with a larger instance type than expected.
Why it's wrong here
Instance type does not affect health check status.
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 company's IT admin needs to give a contractor read-only access to production logs without sharing account credentials. Using role-based access control (RBAC) and temporary scoped permissions — not a permanent shared password — is the correct pattern. Questions like this test whether you can apply least-privilege access across cloud identity services.
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 SOA-C02 NAT questions on configuration and troubleshooting.
Reliability and Business Continuity — This question tests Reliability and Business Continuity — 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 is misconfigured. — Options B and D are correct. If the health check path is incorrect, the ALB marks instances as unhealthy. If the security group does not allow traffic from the ALB, the health check fails. Option A is wrong because a missing IAM role does not cause health check failures. Option C is wrong because insufficient capacity would prevent launch, not cause health check failures. Option E is wrong because a larger instance would not cause health check failures.
What should I do if I get this SOA-C02 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 SOA-C02 NAT questions on configuration and troubleshooting.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "minimum / minimize", "immediately / without restart". Asks for the least resource use — fewest addresses, smallest subnet, lowest overhead. Eliminate over-provisioned options even if they would technically work.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
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