The answer is the failover routing policy. This is the correct choice because it enables an active-passive architecture for multi-region HA, where Route 53 directs traffic to the primary region’s Application Load Balancer and, upon a health check failure, automatically fails over to the secondary region. On the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate SOA-C02 exam, this question tests your understanding of how to achieve high availability across regions without load distribution—a common trap is confusing failover with weighted or latency-based policies, which serve different purposes. Remember, failover is for disaster recovery, not traffic splitting. A simple memory tip: think of a light switch—it’s either on (primary) or off (secondary), never both at once.
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 uses Amazon Route 53 for DNS and wants to ensure that its web application is highly available across two AWS Regions. The application runs behind an Application Load Balancer in each Region. Which routing policy should be used?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Failover routing policy
Option D is correct because the failover routing policy allows you to configure an active-passive setup with health checks, routing traffic to the secondary Region only if the primary fails. Option A is wrong because weighted routing distributes traffic based on weights, not for failover. Option B is wrong because latency-based routing routes based on lowest latency, not failover. Option C is wrong because geolocation routing routes based on user location, not for failover.
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.
✗
Weighted routing policy
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Weighted routing is for distributing load, not for failover.
✓
Failover routing policy
Why this is correct
Correct: Failover routing policy is designed for active-passive failover using health checks.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Geolocation routing policy
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Geolocation routing is based on user location, not for failover.
✗
Latency routing policy
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Latency routing is for performance, not for failover.
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 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 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: Failover routing policy — Option D is correct because the failover routing policy allows you to configure an active-passive setup with health checks, routing traffic to the secondary Region only if the primary fails. Option A is wrong because weighted routing distributes traffic based on weights, not for failover. Option B is wrong because latency-based routing routes based on lowest latency, not failover. Option C is wrong because geolocation routing routes based on user location, not for failover.
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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