- A
Use larger EC2 instance types to handle more traffic.
Why wrong: Larger instances may handle more load but do not improve availability if they fail.
- B
Configure the ALB health check to have a shorter interval.
Why wrong: A shorter interval helps detect failures faster but does not prevent failures or improve latency.
- C
Use an Amazon CloudFront distribution in front of the ALB to cache content at edge locations.
Why wrong: CloudFront improves latency for static content but does not directly improve availability of the ALB/EC2.
- D
Implement Auto Scaling to add instances based on CPU utilization.
Auto Scaling adds instances during high demand, reducing latency by distributing load.
- E
Deploy EC2 instances in multiple Availability Zones.
Distributing instances across AZs ensures the application remains available if one AZ fails.
Improve Availability and Reduce Latency for ALB — Auto Scaling and Multi-AZ | AWS SysOps Administrator Associate Explained
This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of networking and content delivery. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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.
Which TWO actions should a SysOps administrator take to improve the availability and reduce latency for a web application hosted on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer?
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
Implement Auto Scaling to add instances based on CPU utilization.
Option D is correct because Auto Scaling based on CPU utilization dynamically adjusts the number of EC2 instances to match demand, improving availability by ensuring sufficient capacity during traffic spikes and reducing latency by distributing load across more instances. Option E is correct because deploying EC2 instances in multiple Availability Zones (AZs) provides fault tolerance: if one AZ fails, the ALB continues routing traffic to healthy instances in other AZs, which also reduces latency by serving users from the closest AZ.
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 larger EC2 instance types to handle more traffic.
Why it's wrong here
Larger instances may handle more load but do not improve availability if they fail.
- ✗
Configure the ALB health check to have a shorter interval.
Why it's wrong here
A shorter interval helps detect failures faster but does not prevent failures or improve latency.
- ✗
Use an Amazon CloudFront distribution in front of the ALB to cache content at edge locations.
Why it's wrong here
CloudFront improves latency for static content but does not directly improve availability of the ALB/EC2.
- ✓
Implement Auto Scaling to add instances based on CPU utilization.
Why this is correct
Auto Scaling adds instances during high demand, reducing latency by distributing load.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✓
Deploy EC2 instances in multiple Availability Zones.
Why this is correct
Distributing instances across AZs ensures the application remains available if one AZ fails.
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 vertical scaling (larger instances) with horizontal scaling (more instances across AZs), or they mistakenly think that reducing health check intervals always improves availability, when in fact it can cause flapping and reduce stability.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Auto Scaling with a CPU utilization policy uses the AWS Auto Scaling service to monitor CloudWatch metrics (e.g., Average CPUUtilization) and triggers scale-out events when the threshold is exceeded (e.g., >70% for 5 minutes), adding instances to handle load. Deploying across multiple AZs leverages the ALB's cross-zone load balancing feature, which distributes traffic evenly across all registered instances in all enabled AZs, ensuring that even if an entire AZ becomes unavailable (e.g., due to an AWS outage), the application remains accessible from other AZs. Under the hood, the ALB uses a round-robin algorithm per target group and health checks (default interval 30 seconds, timeout 5 seconds) to route traffic only to healthy instances.
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.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this SOA-C02 question test?
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: Implement Auto Scaling to add instances based on CPU utilization. — Option D is correct because Auto Scaling based on CPU utilization dynamically adjusts the number of EC2 instances to match demand, improving availability by ensuring sufficient capacity during traffic spikes and reducing latency by distributing load across more instances. Option E is correct because deploying EC2 instances in multiple Availability Zones (AZs) provides fault tolerance: if one AZ fails, the ALB continues routing traffic to healthy instances in other AZs, which also reduces latency by serving users from the closest AZ.
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.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Same concept, more angles
2 more ways this is tested on SOA-C02
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. Which TWO actions can a SysOps administrator take to improve the availability of a web application using an Application Load Balancer (ALB) and EC2 instances? (Choose two.)
medium- A.Place all instances in a single subnet to reduce latency
- ✓ B.Configure health checks on the target group
- ✓ C.Deploy EC2 instances in multiple Availability Zones
- D.Use larger instance types to handle more traffic
- E.Increase the deregistration delay (connection draining) timeout
Why B: Health checks allow the ALB to automatically detect unhealthy EC2 instances and stop routing traffic to them, which prevents failed requests from reaching users. By configuring health checks on the target group, the ALB can mark instances as unhealthy based on criteria like HTTP response codes or timeout thresholds, and then route traffic only to healthy instances. This directly improves availability by ensuring that requests are not sent to failed or degraded instances.
Variation 2. Which TWO actions can be taken to improve the availability of a web application hosted on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer? (Select two.)
medium- ✓ A.Configure an Auto Scaling group with health checks to replace unhealthy instances.
- B.Use larger EC2 instance types.
- ✓ C.Deploy the EC2 instances across multiple Availability Zones.
- D.Use a single AWS Region for all instances.
- E.Place all EC2 instances in a single subnet.
Why A: Option A is correct because an Auto Scaling group with health checks can automatically replace unhealthy EC2 instances, improving availability. Option C is correct because deploying instances across multiple Availability Zones provides fault tolerance; if one AZ fails, your application continues to run in another. Option B is incorrect because using larger instance types improves performance, not availability. Option D is incorrect because using a single region makes the application vulnerable to region-wide failures, reducing availability. Option E is incorrect because placing all instances in a single subnet creates a single point of failure; distributing across AZs is necessary for high availability.
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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