The answer is to enable cross-zone load balancing on the ALB. This configuration ensures even traffic distribution across targets by overriding the default behavior where the load balancer first splits traffic equally between Availability Zones, then round-robins within each zone—a method that can cause uneven load if one zone has more healthy targets than another. With cross-zone load balancing enabled, each healthy target receives an equal share of requests regardless of its Availability Zone, directly addressing the need for balanced distribution. On the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate SOA-C02 exam, this concept tests your understanding of how ALB routing works at the zone level; a common trap is assuming the default zone-based distribution is sufficient for even load, especially in architectures with asymmetric target counts. Remember the mnemonic: “Cross-zone = cross-zone fairness; default = zone-first, then round-robin.”
SOA-C02 Networking and Content Delivery Practice Question
This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of networking and content delivery. This is a configuration task: choose the command set that satisfies every stated requirement. Small differences — like 'secret' vs 'password' or 'transport input ssh' vs 'all' — change whether the answer is correct. 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 company is designing a highly available architecture for a web application using an Application Load Balancer (ALB) across multiple Availability Zones. Which configuration ensures that traffic is distributed evenly across all healthy targets?
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
Cross-zone load balancing enables the ALB to distribute incoming traffic evenly across all healthy targets in all enabled Availability Zones, rather than sending traffic only to targets within the same zone as the requesting client. By default, ALBs distribute traffic equally across zones first, then round-robin within each zone, which can lead to uneven load if target counts differ per zone. Enabling cross-zone load balancing overrides this behavior, ensuring each healthy target receives an equal share of requests regardless of its 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 traffic evenly across all registered targets in all AZs.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Configure sticky sessions (session affinity) on the target group
Why it's wrong here
Stickiness ties a user to a specific target, which can cause uneven distribution.
✗
Use a Network Load Balancer with path-based routing
Why it's wrong here
NLB does not support path-based routing; that is an ALB feature.
✗
Enable connection draining on the target group
Why it's wrong here
Connection draining allows existing connections to complete, not for load distribution.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse cross-zone load balancing with sticky sessions or connection draining, assuming that session affinity or graceful termination will improve distribution, when in fact only cross-zone load balancing ensures even traffic spread across all healthy targets.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
When cross-zone load balancing is enabled, the ALB uses a weighted random distribution algorithm across all registered targets, effectively ignoring Availability Zone boundaries. This is particularly important in scenarios where Auto Scaling groups have uneven instance counts per zone (e.g., due to capacity constraints), as it prevents overloading smaller zones. The setting can be enabled at the target group level via the `load_balancing.cross_zone.enabled` attribute, and it is enabled by default for ALBs created after August 2022, but must be explicitly enabled for older ALBs or when using AWS CloudFormation with default settings.
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
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.
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 — Cross-zone load balancing enables the ALB to distribute incoming traffic evenly across all healthy targets in all enabled Availability Zones, rather than sending traffic only to targets within the same zone as the requesting client. By default, ALBs distribute traffic equally across zones first, then round-robin within each zone, which can lead to uneven load if target counts differ per zone. Enabling cross-zone load balancing overrides this behavior, ensuring each healthy target receives an equal share of requests regardless of its 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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Question Discussion
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