Question 114 of 1,546
Reliability and Business ContinuitymediumMultiple SelectObjective-mapped

SOA-C02 Reliability and Business Continuity Practice Question

This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of reliability and business continuity. 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 is designing a disaster recovery plan for its critical applications. The plan must minimize data loss and recovery time. Which TWO measures should the SysOps administrator implement?

Clue words in this question

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

  • Clue: "minimum / minimize"

    Why it matters: Asks for the least resource use — fewest addresses, smallest subnet, lowest overhead. Eliminate over-provisioned options even if they would technically work.

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

Perform regular backups to Amazon S3.

Regular backups to Amazon S3 are a foundational data protection measure because S3 provides 99.999999999% durability and supports lifecycle policies for cost-effective long-term retention. This directly addresses the requirement to minimize data loss by ensuring point-in-time recovery copies exist independently of the primary infrastructure.

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.

  • Perform regular backups to Amazon S3.

    Why this is correct

    Backups provide data recovery.

    Clue confirmation

    The clue word "minimum / minimize" in the question point toward this answer.

    Related concept

    Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

  • Set a recovery time objective (RTO) of 24 hours.

    Why it's wrong here

    RTO is a goal, not a measure.

  • Use manual procedures to restore from backups.

    Why it's wrong here

    Manual recovery increases RTO.

  • Run all workloads in a single AWS region.

    Why it's wrong here

    Single region is a single point of failure.

  • Replicate data to another AWS region.

    Why this is correct

    Cross-region replication enables DR.

    Clue confirmation

    The clue word "minimum / minimize" in the question point toward this answer.

    Related concept

    Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

The trap here is that candidates often confuse RTO/RPO definitions with actual implementation measures, or they assume that a single region with backups is sufficient for disaster recovery, ignoring the need for geographic separation to survive a region-wide outage.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

Replicating data to another AWS region using services like S3 Cross-Region Replication (CRR) or RDS cross-region read replicas ensures that a copy of the data exists in a geographically separate location, enabling failover within minutes. Under the hood, CRR asynchronously replicates objects to a destination bucket in a different region, providing eventual consistency and a Recovery Point Objective (RPO) typically measured in minutes, which directly minimizes data loss.

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.

Quick reference

AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison

Storage ClassMin DurationRetrievalUse Case
S3 StandardNoneImmediateFrequently accessed data
S3 Standard-IA30 daysImmediateInfrequent access, rapid retrieval
S3 One Zone-IA30 daysImmediateNon-critical infrequent data
S3 Intelligent-TieringNoneImmediate–hoursUnknown or changing access patterns
S3 Glacier Instant90 daysMillisecondsArchive with instant retrieval
S3 Glacier Flexible90 daysMinutes–hoursArchive, flexible retrieval
S3 Glacier Deep Archive180 daysHoursLong-term compliance archive

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: Perform regular backups to Amazon S3. — Regular backups to Amazon S3 are a foundational data protection measure because S3 provides 99.999999999% durability and supports lifecycle policies for cost-effective long-term retention. This directly addresses the requirement to minimize data loss by ensuring point-in-time recovery copies exist independently of the primary infrastructure.

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: "minimum / minimize". Asks for the least resource use — fewest addresses, smallest subnet, lowest overhead. Eliminate over-provisioned options even if they would technically work.

What is the key concept behind this question?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026

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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.