← SOA-C02·Amazon Web Services

Question 664 of 1,546

Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation →mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

Quick Answer

The answer is CodeDeployDefault.OneAtATime, the deployment configuration that minimizes risk by updating a single instance, verifying success, then proceeding to the next, with an automatic rollback on failure. This strategy, known as a sequential instance update, limits the blast radius of a bad deployment because only one instance is affected at any moment, and the process halts immediately if a health check fails. On the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate SOA-C02 exam, this question tests your understanding of CodeDeploy deployment configurations and their risk profiles—a common trap is confusing OneAtATime with AllAtOnce or HalfAtATime, which either update all instances simultaneously or in larger batches, increasing potential downtime. Remember that "OneAtATime" is the most conservative, cautious choice for critical production environments where you want to catch errors early with minimal impact. A helpful memory tip: think "one by one, then you're done; if it fails, roll back on the run."

SOA-C02 Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation Practice Question

This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of deployment, provisioning, and automation. 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 AWS CodeDeploy to deploy an application to Amazon EC2 instances. The SysOps administrator wants to implement a deployment strategy that minimizes risk by deploying the new version to a small number of instances first, verifying that the deployment is successful, and then deploying to the remaining instances. If the initial deployment fails, the process should stop and roll back. Which CodeDeploy deployment configuration should be used?

Clue words in this question

Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.

Clue: "first"
Why it matters: Order matters here. You are being tested on which action comes before the others — not which action is generally useful.

Question 1mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A
CodeDeployDefault.AllAtOnce
Why wrong: AllAtOnce deploys the new revision to all instances simultaneously. If the deployment fails, there is no gradual verification, and the impact could be widespread.
B
CodeDeployDefault.HalfAtATime
Why wrong: HalfAtATime deploys to half of the instances first, then to the remaining half. While it verifies the first half before proceeding, the first batch could be large depending on group size, which may be riskier than a very small batch.
C
CodeDeployDefault.OneAtATime
OneAtATime deploys to a single instance at a time, verifies that it is healthy, and then proceeds to the next. This is the most cautious approach and matches the requirement of deploying to a small number (one) first, then continuing to the rest.
D
CodeDeployDefault.Canary10Percent10Minutes
Why wrong: This is a traffic shifting configuration for AWS Lambda or Amazon ECS deployments, not for Amazon EC2 in-place deployments. It cannot be used for EC2 instances directly.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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

✓

CodeDeployDefault.OneAtATime

Option C, CodeDeployDefault.OneAtATime, is correct because it deploys the new application revision to one instance at a time, checking for success before proceeding to the next. If any deployment step fails, the process stops and automatically rolls back, minimizing risk by limiting the blast radius of a bad deployment.

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.

✗
CodeDeployDefault.AllAtOnce
Why it's wrong here
AllAtOnce deploys the new revision to all instances simultaneously. If the deployment fails, there is no gradual verification, and the impact could be widespread.
✗
CodeDeployDefault.HalfAtATime
Why it's wrong here
HalfAtATime deploys to half of the instances first, then to the remaining half. While it verifies the first half before proceeding, the first batch could be large depending on group size, which may be riskier than a very small batch.
✓
CodeDeployDefault.OneAtATime
Why this is correct
OneAtATime deploys to a single instance at a time, verifies that it is healthy, and then proceeds to the next. This is the most cautious approach and matches the requirement of deploying to a small number (one) first, then continuing to the rest.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "first" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
CodeDeployDefault.Canary10Percent10Minutes
Why it's wrong here
This is a traffic shifting configuration for AWS Lambda or Amazon ECS deployments, not for Amazon EC2 in-place deployments. It cannot be used for EC2 instances directly.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

The trap here is that candidates often confuse CodeDeployDefault.Canary10Percent10Minutes (a traffic-shifting configuration for Lambda/ECS) with a linear EC2 deployment strategy, or they mistakenly think HalfAtATime provides sufficient risk mitigation when the requirement explicitly calls for deploying to a 'small number' first and stopping on failure.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

Under the hood, CodeDeployDefault.OneAtATime uses a linear deployment strategy where the deployment group's instances are updated sequentially; the deployment fails if any instance fails the lifecycle event hooks (e.g., BeforeInstall, AfterInstall). This configuration is ideal for critical production fleets where even a single instance failure must halt the rollout, and it relies on the deployment group's minimum healthy hosts setting to ensure availability during the process.

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.

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FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this SOA-C02 question test?

Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation — This question tests Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: CodeDeployDefault.OneAtATime — Option C, CodeDeployDefault.OneAtATime, is correct because it deploys the new application revision to one instance at a time, checking for success before proceeding to the next. If any deployment step fails, the process stops and automatically rolls back, minimizing risk by limiting the blast radius of a bad deployment.

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: "first". Order matters here. You are being tested on which action comes before the others — not which action is generally useful.

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.