← SOA-C02·Amazon Web Services

Question 697 of 1,546

Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation →mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

SOA-C02 Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation Practice Question

This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of monitoring, logging, and remediation. 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.

An application writes error logs to Amazon CloudWatch Logs. The SysOps administrator needs to monitor for the occurrence of the string 'ERROR' in the logs and trigger an Amazon SNS notification if more than 10 errors occur within a 5-minute window. The administrator also wants to visualize the error count over time. Which approach should be used to meet these requirements with the least operational overhead?

Clue words in this question

Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.

Clue: "least"
Why it matters: You want the option with minimum overhead, fewest steps, or lowest impact — not the most feature-rich or comprehensive answer.

Question 1mediummultiple choice

Full question →

A
Create a CloudWatch Logs metric filter to count 'ERROR' entries, then create a CloudWatch alarm on that metric with a period of 5 minutes and a threshold of 10.
Metric filters convert log data into CloudWatch metrics, enabling alarms and dashboards with minimal overhead.
B
Use CloudWatch Logs Insights to run a query every 5 minutes and send notifications via a scheduled AWS Lambda function.
Why wrong: Logs Insights is not designed for real-time alerting; scheduled queries add complexity and latency.
C
Create an AWS Lambda function that processes log events in real-time and publishes to Amazon SNS when the error count exceeds 10 in 5 minutes.
Why wrong: This approach requires custom code and more operational overhead compared to using managed metric filters.
D
Use Amazon EventBridge to match log events with the pattern 'ERROR' and send them to an SNS topic.
Why wrong: EventBridge rules trigger on each matching event, not on aggregated counts over a time window.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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 CloudWatch Logs metric filter to count 'ERROR' entries, then create a CloudWatch alarm on that metric with a period of 5 minutes and a threshold of 10.

Option A is correct because CloudWatch Logs metric filters can extract a count of 'ERROR' occurrences from incoming log events and emit a custom metric. A CloudWatch alarm on that metric with a period of 5 minutes and a threshold of 10 directly triggers an SNS notification when the error count exceeds 10 within the window, and the metric itself can be graphed in CloudWatch dashboards for visualization—all with minimal configuration and no custom code.

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 CloudWatch Logs metric filter to count 'ERROR' entries, then create a CloudWatch alarm on that metric with a period of 5 minutes and a threshold of 10.
Why this is correct
Metric filters convert log data into CloudWatch metrics, enabling alarms and dashboards with minimal overhead.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "least" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use CloudWatch Logs Insights to run a query every 5 minutes and send notifications via a scheduled AWS Lambda function.
Why it's wrong here
Logs Insights is not designed for real-time alerting; scheduled queries add complexity and latency.
✗
Create an AWS Lambda function that processes log events in real-time and publishes to Amazon SNS when the error count exceeds 10 in 5 minutes.
Why it's wrong here
This approach requires custom code and more operational overhead compared to using managed metric filters.
✗
Use Amazon EventBridge to match log events with the pattern 'ERROR' and send them to an SNS topic.
Why it's wrong here
EventBridge rules trigger on each matching event, not on aggregated counts over a time window.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

The trap here is that candidates may overcomplicate the solution by choosing Lambda or EventBridge, not realizing that CloudWatch Logs metric filters combined with CloudWatch alarms are the native, serverless, and lowest-overhead way to count substring occurrences and trigger alerts on aggregated thresholds.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

CloudWatch Logs metric filters work by scanning incoming log data as it is ingested, using a pattern syntax similar to that of CloudWatch Logs Insights (e.g., 'ERROR' matches the literal string). The emitted metric is a custom namespace metric that can be used with CloudWatch alarms, which support statistic evaluation (e.g., 'Sum' over a 5-minute period) and alarm actions like publishing to an SNS topic. Under the hood, the metric filter operates at the log group level and updates the metric in near real-time, enabling both alerting and historical visualization without additional infrastructure.

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.

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FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this SOA-C02 question test?

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: Create a CloudWatch Logs metric filter to count 'ERROR' entries, then create a CloudWatch alarm on that metric with a period of 5 minutes and a threshold of 10. — Option A is correct because CloudWatch Logs metric filters can extract a count of 'ERROR' occurrences from incoming log events and emit a custom metric. A CloudWatch alarm on that metric with a period of 5 minutes and a threshold of 10 directly triggers an SNS notification when the error count exceeds 10 within the window, and the metric itself can be graphed in CloudWatch dashboards for visualization—all with minimal configuration and no custom code.

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.

Are there clue words in this question I should notice?

Yes — watch for: "least". You want the option with minimum overhead, fewest steps, or lowest impact — not the most feature-rich or comprehensive answer.

What is the key concept behind this question?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

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