- A
Create a Read Replica in a different region and promote it during a disaster.
A cross-region Read Replica provides low replication lag (often <5 minutes) and can be promoted quickly, meeting both RTO and RPO at a lower cost than a full standby instance.
- B
Take daily snapshots and copy them to another region.
Why wrong: Daily snapshots have an RPO of up to 24 hours, which exceeds the required 5-minute RPO.
- C
Use cross-region automated backups.
Why wrong: Automated backups are retained for up to 35 days and can be copied across regions, but the RPO is typically up to 15 minutes, and recovery involves restoring from a snapshot, which may take longer than 1 hour.
- D
Deploy a second Multi-AZ DB instance in another region.
Why wrong: This creates a fully provisioned, writable standby instance that incurs costs for compute and storage, making it more expensive than a Read Replica.
SOA-C02 Reliability and Business Continuity Practice Question
This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of reliability and business continuity. Compare every option against the stated constraints before choosing — the best answer satisfies all requirements, not just the most obvious one. 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 has an Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance with Multi-AZ deployment in us-east-1. The SysOps administrator must design a disaster recovery strategy to recover from a regional outage. The Recovery Time Objective (RTO) is 1 hour and the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) is 5 minutes. Which solution meets these requirements at the lowest cost?
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
Create a Read Replica in a different region and promote it during a disaster.
A cross-region Read Replica meets the RPO of 5 minutes because replication is continuous (asynchronous) with minimal lag, and the RTO of 1 hour is achievable by promoting the replica during a disaster. This is the lowest-cost option because it uses a single standby instance in another region without the overhead of a full Multi-AZ deployment or frequent snapshot transfers.
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.
- ✓
Create a Read Replica in a different region and promote it during a disaster.
Why this is correct
A cross-region Read Replica provides low replication lag (often <5 minutes) and can be promoted quickly, meeting both RTO and RPO at a lower cost than a full standby instance.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Take daily snapshots and copy them to another region.
Why it's wrong here
Daily snapshots have an RPO of up to 24 hours, which exceeds the required 5-minute RPO.
- ✗
Use cross-region automated backups.
Why it's wrong here
Automated backups are retained for up to 35 days and can be copied across regions, but the RPO is typically up to 15 minutes, and recovery involves restoring from a snapshot, which may take longer than 1 hour.
- ✗
Deploy a second Multi-AZ DB instance in another region.
Why it's wrong here
This creates a fully provisioned, writable standby instance that incurs costs for compute and storage, making it more expensive than a Read Replica.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse 'cross-region automated backups' (which do not exist as a native feature) with automated snapshot copying, or assume that daily snapshots can meet a 5-minute RPO by increasing snapshot frequency, ignoring the fundamental limitation of snapshot scheduling and transfer time.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
RDS for PostgreSQL cross-region Read Replicas use PostgreSQL's native streaming replication (WAL-based) to asynchronously replicate changes from the source to the replica. The replica can be promoted to a standalone instance in minutes, and the typical replication lag is under 5 seconds in stable networks, easily meeting a 5-minute RPO. However, if the source fails before the last WAL segment is shipped, some data loss may occur, so the RPO is not zero.
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 startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
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.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SOA-C02 question test?
Reliability and Business Continuity — This question tests Reliability and Business Continuity — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Create a Read Replica in a different region and promote it during a disaster. — A cross-region Read Replica meets the RPO of 5 minutes because replication is continuous (asynchronous) with minimal lag, and the RTO of 1 hour is achievable by promoting the replica during a disaster. This is the lowest-cost option because it uses a single standby instance in another region without the overhead of a full Multi-AZ deployment or frequent snapshot transfers.
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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