The answer is to set the alarm to evaluate over 1 minute instead of 5 minutes. This is correct because CloudWatch alarms evaluate a metric against a threshold over a specified period of consecutive minutes; if the CPU utilization spikes to 100% but only lasts 2–3 minutes, those bursts fall short of the 5-minute evaluation window, so the alarm never enters the ALARM state. On the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate SOA-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how evaluation periods and datapoints interact with bursty workloads—a common trap is assuming any threshold breach triggers the alarm, when in fact the duration condition must also be met. A helpful memory tip: “Short spikes need short periods,” so match the alarm’s evaluation window to the typical duration of the metric anomaly to catch transient CPU spikes.
SOA-C02 Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation Practice Question
This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of monitoring, logging, and remediation. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. 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 uses Amazon RDS for MySQL with Multi-AZ deployment. The SysOps administrator notices that the DB instance's CPU utilization spikes to 100% every few minutes. CloudWatch alarms have been set to trigger when CPU exceeds 90% for 5 minutes, but no alarm state changes are observed. The administrator checks the CloudWatch metrics and sees that the CPU utilization metric shows periodic spikes but they last only 2-3 minutes each. What is the most likely cause and what should the administrator do to receive notifications?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "most likely"
Why it matters: Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Set the alarm to evaluate over 1 minute instead of 5 minutes.
The CPU utilization spikes last only 2-3 minutes, which is shorter than the alarm's evaluation period of 5 consecutive minutes. Since the alarm requires the metric to exceed the 90% threshold for 5 minutes before triggering, these brief spikes never satisfy the alarm's duration condition. Setting the alarm to evaluate over 1 minute will match the spike duration and allow the alarm to trigger on these short-lived bursts.
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.
✓
Set the alarm to evaluate over 1 minute instead of 5 minutes.
Why this is correct
Shorter evaluation period will detect the short-duration spikes.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "most likely" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
The Multi-AZ failover is causing the spikes; disable Multi-AZ.
Why it's wrong here
Multi-AZ failover would cause a brief outage, not periodic CPU spikes.
✗
The DB instance is not publishing CPU metrics at a high enough resolution.
Why it's wrong here
Standard resolution is 5 minutes, but the spikes are within that; the alarm period is the issue.
✗
The CPU metric is not accurate; use the CPU credit metric instead.
Why it's wrong here
The metric is accurate; the alarm is not configured to detect short spikes.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates assume the alarm should trigger because the metric exceeds the threshold, but they overlook the requirement that the breach must persist for the entire evaluation period, not just momentarily.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
CloudWatch alarms evaluate based on the number of consecutive data points that breach a threshold within a specified evaluation period. For a standard alarm with a 5-minute period, the alarm state changes only if all data points in that 5-minute window exceed the threshold. Short-lived spikes (2-3 minutes) produce only 2-3 breaching data points, which is insufficient to trigger the alarm. By reducing the evaluation period to 1 minute, the alarm will trigger after just 1 minute of sustained breach, matching the spike duration.
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 cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.
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.
Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation — This question tests Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Set the alarm to evaluate over 1 minute instead of 5 minutes. — The CPU utilization spikes last only 2-3 minutes, which is shorter than the alarm's evaluation period of 5 consecutive minutes. Since the alarm requires the metric to exceed the 90% threshold for 5 minutes before triggering, these brief spikes never satisfy the alarm's duration condition. Setting the alarm to evaluate over 1 minute will match the spike duration and allow the alarm to trigger on these short-lived bursts.
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.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "most likely". Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
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 →
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
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
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.