- A
Enable cross-zone load balancing on the ALB.
Cross-zone load balancing distributes incoming traffic across all instances in all AZs where the ALB is enabled. By default, it is enabled for Application Load Balancers, but if the administrator created the ALB with an older API or modified it, it may have been disabled. Enabling it will spread traffic evenly.
- B
Enable connection draining on the target group.
Why wrong: Connection draining allows in-flight requests to complete when an instance is deregistered or unhealthy. It does not affect how traffic is distributed across AZs.
- C
Enable sticky sessions (session stickiness) on the target group.
Why wrong: Sticky sessions make the load balancer send requests from a particular client to the same instance. It can cause uneven distribution if not carefully balanced, and it does not solve the problem of traffic only going to one AZ.
- D
Configure health checks on the target group to ensure unhealthy instances are not used.
Why wrong: Health checks ensure traffic is only sent to healthy instances, but they do not control the AZ-level distribution. If all instances are healthy, the ALB will still only send traffic to instances in the same AZ as the node that received the request if cross-zone is disabled.
Quick Answer
The correct answer is to enable cross-zone load balancing on the ALB. By default, an Application Load Balancer distributes incoming traffic evenly across each enabled Availability Zone (AZ), not across individual instances—meaning if one AZ has four healthy targets and another has only one, each AZ still receives 50% of the traffic, leaving the single-instance AZ overloaded. Enabling cross-zone load balancing overrides this behavior, allowing the ALB to distribute traffic proportionally across all healthy targets in all AZs, ensuring even load distribution regardless of zone imbalances. On the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate SOA-C02 exam, this concept tests your understanding of ALB routing mechanics and the default 50/50 zone split, a common trap where candidates assume traffic is already balanced across instances. Remember the memory tip: “Default divides by zone, cross-zone divides by instance.”
SOA-C02 Networking and Content Delivery Practice Question
This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of networking and content delivery. 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 SysOps administrator has deployed an Application Load Balancer (ALB) that distributes traffic to a fleet of Amazon EC2 instances. The administrator notices that the ALB is sending all traffic to instances in a single Availability Zone (AZ), ignoring instances in other AZs. The ALB was created with default settings. Which action should the administrator take to ensure traffic is distributed evenly across all AZs?
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
Enable cross-zone load balancing on the ALB.
By default, an Application Load Balancer distributes traffic evenly across the registered targets in each enabled Availability Zone, but it does not distribute traffic evenly across zones. This means if one AZ has more healthy targets than another, traffic is still split 50/50 between AZs, not across all instances equally. Enabling cross-zone load balancing on the ALB ensures that traffic is distributed evenly across all healthy targets in all enabled AZs, regardless of the number of instances in each zone.
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.
- ✓
Enable cross-zone load balancing on the ALB.
Why this is correct
Cross-zone load balancing distributes incoming traffic across all instances in all AZs where the ALB is enabled. By default, it is enabled for Application Load Balancers, but if the administrator created the ALB with an older API or modified it, it may have been disabled. Enabling it will spread traffic evenly.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Enable connection draining on the target group.
Why it's wrong here
Connection draining allows in-flight requests to complete when an instance is deregistered or unhealthy. It does not affect how traffic is distributed across AZs.
- ✗
Enable sticky sessions (session stickiness) on the target group.
Why it's wrong here
Sticky sessions make the load balancer send requests from a particular client to the same instance. It can cause uneven distribution if not carefully balanced, and it does not solve the problem of traffic only going to one AZ.
- ✗
Configure health checks on the target group to ensure unhealthy instances are not used.
Why it's wrong here
Health checks ensure traffic is only sent to healthy instances, but they do not control the AZ-level distribution. If all instances are healthy, the ALB will still only send traffic to instances in the same AZ as the node that received the request if cross-zone is disabled.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often assume ALB distributes traffic evenly across all instances by default, but the default behavior is to distribute traffic evenly across Availability Zones, not across individual instances.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Cross-zone load balancing is disabled by default for Application Load Balancers (unlike Network Load Balancers where it is enabled by default). When enabled, the ALB uses a hash algorithm to distribute requests across all healthy targets in all enabled AZs, effectively ignoring AZ boundaries. In a real-world scenario, if you have two AZs with 2 instances in one and 8 in the other, without cross-zone balancing each AZ gets 50% of traffic (so the 2-instance AZ gets 50% of traffic, overloading those instances), while with cross-zone balancing each instance receives an equal share (10% of traffic each).
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
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
What to study next
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SOA-C02 question test?
Networking and Content Delivery — This question tests Networking and Content Delivery — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Enable cross-zone load balancing on the ALB. — By default, an Application Load Balancer distributes traffic evenly across the registered targets in each enabled Availability Zone, but it does not distribute traffic evenly across zones. This means if one AZ has more healthy targets than another, traffic is still split 50/50 between AZs, not across all instances equally. Enabling cross-zone load balancing on the ALB ensures that traffic is distributed evenly across all healthy targets in all enabled AZs, regardless of the number of instances in each zone.
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.
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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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