The correct answer is to use the ALB’s TargetResponseTime metric and the HealthyHostCount metric. TargetResponseTime directly measures the average time in seconds that requests spend waiting for a response from registered targets, which is the precise indicator of application latency during peak hours. HealthyHostCount, meanwhile, tracks the number of targets that pass health checks, giving you an exact count of healthy hosts behind the load balancer. On the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate SOA-C02 exam, this question tests your ability to distinguish between ALB-level metrics like RequestCount or HTTPCode_ELB_5xx and target-group-level metrics; a common trap is confusing Latency (a Classic Load Balancer metric) with TargetResponseTime. Remember the memory tip: “Target” equals the application’s response time, while “Healthy” equals the host count—both live under the ALB’s namespace in CloudWatch.
SOA-C02 Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation Practice Question
This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of monitoring, logging, and remediation. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. 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 runs a web application on Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The SysOps administrator notices that the application's response time is increasing during peak hours. The administrator wants to set up a CloudWatch dashboard that displays the average latency of requests across all instances and the number of healthy hosts. Which metrics should be used?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use the ALB's 'TargetResponseTime' metric and the ALB's 'HealthyHostCount' metric.
Option B is correct because the ALB's 'TargetResponseTime' metric measures the average time (in seconds) that requests are routed to targets, which directly reflects application latency. The ALB's 'HealthyHostCount' metric shows the number of healthy registered targets, which is the exact metric needed to monitor host health. Together, these two metrics provide the required visibility into average latency and healthy host count across all instances.
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.
✗
Use the ALB's 'TargetResponseTime' metric and the ALB's 'UnhealthyHostCount' metric.
Why it's wrong here
UnhealthyHostCount is the inverse; HealthyHostCount is more direct.
✓
Use the ALB's 'TargetResponseTime' metric and the ALB's 'HealthyHostCount' metric.
Why this is correct
These are the correct ALB metrics for latency and healthy host count.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use the ALB's 'RequestCount' metric and the EC2 Auto Scaling group's 'GroupInServiceInstances' metric.
Why it's wrong here
RequestCount does not indicate latency.
✗
Use the ALB's 'Latency' metric and the EC2 instance's 'CPUUtilization' metric.
Why it's wrong here
There is no 'Latency' metric for ALB; the correct metric is 'TargetResponseTime'.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse 'UnhealthyHostCount' with 'HealthyHostCount' or mistakenly use instance-level metrics (like CPUUtilization) instead of ALB-level metrics, failing to recognize that the ALB's own metrics are the authoritative source for request latency and target health.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
The ALB 'TargetResponseTime' metric is calculated as the time between when the ALB sends a request to a target and when it receives the complete response (including headers and body). This metric is emitted at the ALB level, not per instance, so it aggregates across all registered targets. The 'HealthyHostCount' metric is emitted per target group and counts targets that pass health checks (default: HTTP 200 response within 5 seconds), making it the precise indicator of available backend capacity.
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: Use the ALB's 'TargetResponseTime' metric and the ALB's 'HealthyHostCount' metric. — Option B is correct because the ALB's 'TargetResponseTime' metric measures the average time (in seconds) that requests are routed to targets, which directly reflects application latency. The ALB's 'HealthyHostCount' metric shows the number of healthy registered targets, which is the exact metric needed to monitor host health. Together, these two metrics provide the required visibility into average latency and healthy host count across all instances.
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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