- A
Deploy an additional EC2 instance in the same Availability Zone.
Why wrong: Incorrect. Adding instances in the same AZ does not protect against an AZ failure.
- B
Launch EC2 instances in two different Availability Zones and place them behind an Application Load Balancer.
Correct. Spreading instances across AZs with a load balancer ensures continued availability if one AZ becomes unavailable.
- C
Enable termination protection on all EC2 instances.
Why wrong: Incorrect. Termination protection prevents accidental termination but does not protect against AZ failure.
- D
Use an Amazon RDS Multi-AZ deployment for the database tier.
Why wrong: Incorrect. While this improves database availability, the question asks about the application itself, and the web servers remain vulnerable.
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 web application on Amazon EC2 instances in a single Availability Zone. The SysOps administrator wants to increase the availability of the application so that it can survive an Availability Zone failure. Which action is the most effective?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
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 in two different Availability Zones and place them behind an Application Load Balancer.
Option B is correct because deploying EC2 instances across two different Availability Zones and placing them behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB) provides fault isolation. If one AZ fails, the ALB automatically routes traffic to the healthy instances in the other AZ, ensuring the application remains available. This architecture directly addresses the goal of surviving an AZ failure by eliminating the single point of failure at the AZ level.
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.
- ✗
Deploy an additional EC2 instance in the same Availability Zone.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Adding instances in the same AZ does not protect against an AZ failure.
- ✓
Launch EC2 instances in two different Availability Zones and place them behind an Application Load Balancer.
Why this is correct
Correct. Spreading instances across AZs with a load balancer ensures continued availability if one AZ becomes unavailable.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Enable termination protection on all EC2 instances.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. Termination protection prevents accidental termination but does not protect against AZ failure.
- ✗
Use an Amazon RDS Multi-AZ deployment for the database tier.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. While this improves database availability, the question asks about the application itself, and the web servers remain vulnerable.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse high availability with fault tolerance at a single component level, mistakenly thinking that adding more instances in the same AZ or enabling termination protection improves availability, when in fact only distributing resources across multiple isolated Availability Zones can survive an AZ failure.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
An Application Load Balancer performs health checks on targets using HTTP/HTTPS or TCP probes; if an instance fails health checks (e.g., due to AZ failure), the ALB stops sending traffic to it and distributes requests only to healthy instances in other AZs. Under the hood, cross-zone load balancing is enabled by default in ALBs, allowing traffic to be evenly distributed across all healthy instances regardless of AZ. In a real-world scenario, this design also supports blue/green deployments and can be combined with Auto Scaling groups configured for multiple AZs to automatically replace failed instances.
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.
TExam Day Tips
- 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 exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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Reliability and Business Continuity — study guide chapter
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SOA-C02 question test?
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: Launch EC2 instances in two different Availability Zones and place them behind an Application Load Balancer. — Option B is correct because deploying EC2 instances across two different Availability Zones and placing them behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB) provides fault isolation. If one AZ fails, the ALB automatically routes traffic to the healthy instances in the other AZ, ensuring the application remains available. This architecture directly addresses the goal of surviving an AZ failure by eliminating the single point of failure at the AZ level.
What should I do if I get this SOA-C02 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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Last reviewed: Jun 11, 2026
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.
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