SOA-C02 Networking and Content Delivery Practice Question
A company wants to host a static website on AWS with high availability and low latency for global users. Which service should be used to serve the static content?
⚠ Common exam trap
SOA-C02 often tests whether candidates recognize that 'high availability and low latency for global users' implies edge caching (CloudFront) plus object storage (S3), not compute or DNS-only solutions — the trap is picking Route 53 or EC2/ALB as if DNS or a regional load balancer could deliver global edge performance.
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
✓
Amazon S3 bucket configured for static website hosting, with Amazon CloudFront.
Amazon S3 static website hosting serves the HTML/CSS/JS objects directly from the bucket, and fronting it with Amazon CloudFront caches content at global edge locations, delivering low latency and high availability. This combination is the canonical AWS pattern for globally distributed static sites because it removes server management and scales automatically.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS Lambda with API Gateway.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Lambda with API Gateway would force you to write and run custom code to retrieve and return each static file from S3 or another store, incurring per-request invocation costs, cold-start latency, and a 6MB response payload ceiling. Static websites need object storage and HTTP delivery, not a function compute service that executes code on demand — it is designed for dynamic APIs, not for serving HTML, CSS, and images at scale. The architecture also lacks built-in CDN caching, making it slower and more expensive than a managed static hosting solution.
- ✗
Amazon Route 53 with a simple routing policy.
Why it's wrong here
Amazon Route 53 with a simple routing policy is purely a DNS service, not a web server or content host. A simple routing policy answers DNS queries with one fixed value (such as an IP address or another DNS name) and provides no mechanism to store files, respond to HTTP requests, or serve web content. This option would not host a static website at all; it only helps translate a domain name to an endpoint once an actual hosting service already exists.
- ✗
EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer.
Why it's wrong here
Running EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer means you are responsible for patching operating systems, configuring and scaling web server software, and managing instance replacement for high availability. It is a multi-instance fleet with per-hour run costs and ALB charges, making it far more expensive and operationally heavy than a fully managed service for simple static content. ALBs also target dynamic backends like EC2 or containers; they are not needed for serving pre-rendered files where S3's native scaling and CloudFront's global edge cache are simpler and more resilient.
- ✓
Amazon S3 bucket configured for static website hosting, with Amazon CloudFront.
Why this is correct
An S3 bucket configured for static website hosting provides durable, highly available object storage with built-in features like index and error documents, and it scales automatically to handle any traffic level. Adding Amazon CloudFront in front of S3 gives you a global CDN that caches content at edge locations, reducing latency for users worldwide and offloading repeated requests from the bucket. CloudFront also adds HTTPS for custom domains, DDoS protection via AWS Shield, and allows you to keep the S3 bucket private using Origin Access Control (OAC), making this pairing the recommended serverless, cost-effective architecture for a high-availability static website.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This SOA-C02 question is part of Courseiva's 1,169-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on SOA-C02
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company wants to host a static website on AWS with high availability and low latency for global users. Which combination of services should be used?
easy- A.Amazon EC2 and Elastic Load Balancing
- ✓ B.Amazon S3 and Amazon CloudFront
- C.Amazon Route 53 and Amazon S3
- D.Elastic Load Balancing and Amazon CloudFront
Why B: Amazon S3 provides durable, highly available object storage ideal for hosting static website content, and Amazon CloudFront is a global CDN that caches content at edge locations worldwide, delivering low-latency access for global users. Together they form the canonical AWS static website architecture with no servers to manage.
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
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.