Question 1hardmultiple choice
Full question →hardmultiple choiceObjective-mapped
A SysOps team needs to monitor application logs in Amazon CloudWatch Logs for specific error codes and automatically invoke an AWS Lambda function for remediation within 5 minutes of an error occurring. Which solution involves the least operational overhead?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
A
Distractor review
Create a CloudWatch Logs subscription filter to stream logs directly to an AWS Lambda function.
Incorrect. While possible, this processes every log event, increasing cost and complexity. It does not natively aggregate errors for alarm triggering.
B
Best answer
Create a CloudWatch metric filter on the log group, create a CloudWatch alarm on the metric, and configure the alarm to post to an SNS topic that triggers the Lambda function.
Correct. This uses native CloudWatch features with minimal overhead, meeting the 5-minute requirement through alarm evaluation intervals.
C
Distractor review
Use a third-party log aggregation tool that sends webhook notifications to an API Gateway endpoint to invoke the Lambda function.
Incorrect. This introduces external dependencies and additional operational overhead to manage the third-party tool.
D
Distractor review
Write a custom script that runs on an EC2 instance to poll CloudWatch Logs every minute and invoke the Lambda function.
Incorrect. This requires managing an EC2 instance and custom scripting, adding significant overhead.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
- PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
- Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
- NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
- Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
- Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
- Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
Related practice questions
Related SOA-C02 practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A company uses Amazon CloudFront to deliver content to a global audience. The origin is an Application Load Balancer in us-east-1. The SysOps administrator wants to reduce costs by minimizing the number of requests that reach the origin server. Which action should the administrator take?
Question 2
A company runs a batch processing application on Amazon EC2 that runs for 2 hours every night. The workload can tolerate interruptions. Which EC2 purchasing option provides the lowest cost for this use case?
Question 3
A SysOps administrator needs to monitor the CPU utilization of an Amazon RDS DB instance and receive an alarm when CPU utilization exceeds 80% for 5 consecutive minutes. Which AWS service should be used to create this alarm?
Question 4
A company runs a critical web application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The application uses session stickiness (sticky sessions) to maintain user sessions. The SysOps administrator notices that when instances are replaced during a scale-in or failure event, users lose their session data. The administrator needs to preserve session data across instance failures without losing stickiness benefits. What should the administrator do?
Question 5
A company runs a production web application on a single Amazon EC2 instance. The application experiences a predictable and steady workload 24/7. The SysOps administrator wants to minimize compute costs for this instance while ensuring it remains available during the expected workload. Which EC2 purchasing option should the administrator use?
Question 6
A company has a VPC with public and private subnets. The private subnets host application servers that need to make outbound HTTPS connections to the internet. The SysOps administrator must implement a solution that provides outbound internet connectivity while preventing inbound connections from the internet. Additionally, the solution must allow the company to control which domains the application servers can access. Which solution should the administrator implement?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SOA-C02 question test?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Create a CloudWatch metric filter on the log group, create a CloudWatch alarm on the metric, and configure the alarm to post to an SNS topic that triggers the Lambda function. — CloudWatch Logs can use a metric filter to extract error codes and create a custom metric, then an alarm based on that metric triggers an SNS topic that invokes a Lambda function. This native pattern integrates fully within CloudWatch and requires no custom code for log streaming. A subscription filter streams all log events in real time to Lambda, which would require the function to parse each event and could result in higher costs and more complexity. Polling with a custom script adds overhead. Third-party tools introduce external dependencies.
What should I do if I get this SOA-C02 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
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