SOA-C02 Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation Practice Question
This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of monitoring, logging, and remediation. 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 SysOps administrator is monitoring an Amazon ECS cluster running Fargate tasks. The administrator wants to receive a notification when any task fails to start due to insufficient memory. Which combination of actions should be taken? (Choose TWO.)
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Configure the CloudWatch Events rule to send notifications to an SNS topic.
Option B is correct because Amazon CloudWatch Events (now Events) can trigger an SNS notification when a specific ECS task state change occurs. Option C is correct because you can create a CloudWatch Events rule that matches ECS task state changes with a reason of 'RESOURCE:MEMORY', which indicates the task failed to start due to insufficient memory. Together, these actions ensure you receive a notification when a Fargate task fails to start due to memory constraints.
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 AWS CloudTrail and create a metric filter for RunTask API calls.
Why it's wrong here
CloudTrail records API calls, not task failure events.
✓
Configure the CloudWatch Events rule to send notifications to an SNS topic.
Why this is correct
SNS can send email or SMS notifications for alarms.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Create a CloudWatch Events rule that matches ECS task state changes with a reason of 'RESOURCE:MEMORY'.
Why this is correct
CloudWatch Events can capture ECS task failures due to resource constraints.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Create a CloudWatch alarm on the ECS cluster's CPUUtilization metric.
Why it's wrong here
CPUUtilization is not related to task start failures.
✗
Enable CloudWatch Logs for the ECS cluster and filter for error messages.
Why it's wrong here
CloudWatch Logs stores container logs, not task state events.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse CloudTrail (audit logging) with CloudWatch Events (event-driven notifications), or they mistakenly think CPU metrics can indicate memory-related failures, leading them to select options that do not directly capture the specific 'RESOURCE:MEMORY' reason.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
When a Fargate task fails to start due to insufficient memory, ECS emits a task state change event with a reason field set to 'RESOURCE:MEMORY'. CloudWatch Events (now EventBridge) can match this exact pattern using an event pattern like {"source":["aws.ecs"],"detail-type":["ECS Task State Change"],"detail":{"lastStatus":["STOPPED"],"stoppedReason":["RESOURCE:MEMORY"]}}. This approach avoids polling and provides near-instant notification, which is critical for capacity planning in production environments.
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.
Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation — This question tests Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Configure the CloudWatch Events rule to send notifications to an SNS topic. — Option B is correct because Amazon CloudWatch Events (now Events) can trigger an SNS notification when a specific ECS task state change occurs. Option C is correct because you can create a CloudWatch Events rule that matches ECS task state changes with a reason of 'RESOURCE:MEMORY', which indicates the task failed to start due to insufficient memory. Together, these actions ensure you receive a notification when a Fargate task fails to start due to memory constraints.
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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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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