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 SysOps Administrator needs to ensure the application can withstand the loss of an entire Availability Zone. Which THREE steps should be taken? (Choose THREE.)
Why wrong: Cross-zone load balancing distributes traffic evenly across all AZs, which is desirable, but not enabling it would limit traffic to one AZ at a time.
B
Configure the Auto Scaling group to launch instances in at least two Availability Zones.
Ensures instances are distributed across AZs.
C
Ensure the ALB is configured to route traffic to all enabled AZs.
ALB can route to instances in any AZ.
D
Configure the Auto Scaling group to use a dynamic scaling policy based on CPU utilization.
Auto Scaling across AZs maintains capacity even if an AZ fails.
E
Use an Elastic IP address for each EC2 instance.
Why wrong: Elastic IPs are not needed with ALB and do not help with AZ failure.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Configure the Auto Scaling group to launch instances in at least two Availability Zones.
Option A is correct because deploying across multiple AZs ensures that if one AZ fails, the application still runs. Option C is correct because ALB can distribute traffic to healthy instances in any AZ. Option D is correct because Auto Scaling across AZs replaces failed instances in other AZs. Option B is wrong because it would distribute traffic to one AZ at a time. Option E is wrong because EC2 is not zone-specific.
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.
✗
Enable cross-zone load balancing on the ALB.
Why it's wrong here
Cross-zone load balancing distributes traffic evenly across all AZs, which is desirable, but not enabling it would limit traffic to one AZ at a time.
✓
Configure the Auto Scaling group to launch instances in at least two Availability Zones.
Why this is correct
Ensures instances are distributed across AZs.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Ensure the ALB is configured to route traffic to all enabled AZs.
Why this is correct
ALB can route to instances in any AZ.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Configure the Auto Scaling group to use a dynamic scaling policy based on CPU utilization.
Why this is correct
Auto Scaling across AZs maintains capacity even if an AZ fails.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use an Elastic IP address for each EC2 instance.
Why it's wrong here
Elastic IPs are not needed with ALB and do not help with AZ failure.
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
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
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: Configure the Auto Scaling group to launch instances in at least two Availability Zones. — Option A is correct because deploying across multiple AZs ensures that if one AZ fails, the application still runs. Option C is correct because ALB can distribute traffic to healthy instances in any AZ. Option D is correct because Auto Scaling across AZs replaces failed instances in other AZs. Option B is wrong because it would distribute traffic to one AZ at a time. Option E is wrong because EC2 is not zone-specific.
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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Question Discussion
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