SOA-C02 Deployment, Provisioning, and Automation Practice Question
Network Topology
A SysOps administrator is creating a CloudFormation stack and receives the error shown in the exhibit. The template snippet for the Auto Scaling group is:
"MyAutoScalingGroup": {
"Type": "AWS::AutoScaling::AutoScalingGroup",
"Properties": {
"MinSize": "1",
"MaxSize": "5",
"DesiredCapacity": "2",...
} }
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates often focus on logical constraints like MinSize vs MaxSize or DesiredCapacity ranges, overlooking the subtle but critical data type mismatch between a string and an integer in the template syntax.
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
✓
The MinSize value must be specified as an integer, not a string.
The `MinSize`, `MaxSize`, and `DesiredCapacity` properties in an `AWS::AutoScaling::AutoScalingGroup` resource must be specified as integer values, not strings. In the provided template snippet, `"1"` is a string literal, which causes CloudFormation to fail validation because it expects a numeric type (e.g., `1` without quotes).
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The DesiredCapacity value must be less than MinSize.
Why it's wrong here
DesiredCapacity is an independent setting that must fall within the MinSize and MaxSize boundaries, inclusive. If DesiredCapacity were less than MinSize, the Auto Scaling group would attempt to scale down to a value outside its minimum, which is invalid. Therefore, this is not a valid cause of the failure; the actual issue is a type mismatch.
- ✗
The MinSize value exceeds the MaxSize value.
Why it's wrong here
The MinSize value (1) is indeed less than the MaxSize value (5), so this condition is satisfied in the template. CloudFormation validates that MinSize is less than or equal to MaxSize before creating the stack, and since 1 < 5, this is not the reason for the failure. The failure occurs because MinSize is supplied as a string, not because of any range violation.
- ✗
The Auto Scaling group must have a scaling policy.
Why it's wrong here
Auto Scaling groups are fully functional without any scaling policies; policies are used only for dynamic scaling actions such as step scaling or target tracking. The only mandatory properties for an Auto Scaling group are the minimum and maximum size, and the launch configuration or template. Therefore, the absence or presence of a scaling policy is irrelevant to this stack creation failure.
- ✓
The MinSize value must be specified as an integer, not a string.
Why this is correct
CloudFormation enforces strict type validation for resource properties, and the MinSize attribute for AWS::AutoScaling::AutoScalingGroup is defined as an integer. When a value like "1" is passed as a quoted string, CloudFormation rejects the template because it does not match the expected Integer type. The fix is to remove the quotes or use the intrinsic function with a proper numeric value in the template.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.