Quick Answer
The answer is Amazon CloudWatch, as it is the native AWS service designed to monitor EC2 instance metrics like CPU utilization and trigger alerts based on defined thresholds. CloudWatch Alarms work by evaluating a metric (e.g., CPUUtilization) against a threshold (80%) over a specified number of consecutive evaluation periods—in this case, ten 1-minute periods to match the 10-minute requirement—and then sending a notification via Amazon SNS when the condition is breached. On the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate SOA-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of CloudWatch’s metric collection and alarm configuration, often appearing as a straightforward monitoring question where the trap is confusing CloudWatch with AWS Config (which tracks configuration changes) or CloudTrail (which logs API calls). Remember that CloudWatch is for performance monitoring and alerting, not for auditing or compliance. A helpful memory tip: “CloudWatch watches the cloud’s health, not its history.”
This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of monitoring, logging, and remediation. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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 SysOps administrator needs to monitor the CPU utilization of an EC2 instance and receive an alert when it exceeds 80% for 10 consecutive minutes. Which AWS service should be used to set up this monitoring and alerting?
Amazon CloudWatch
CloudWatch monitors metrics and can trigger alarms.
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why wrong: Trusted Advisor provides optimization checks, not monitoring.
AWS Config
Why wrong: Config evaluates resource configurations, not real-time metrics.
AWS CloudTrail
Why wrong: CloudTrail records API activity, not metrics.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Amazon CloudWatch
Amazon CloudWatch is the correct service because it provides the ability to monitor EC2 instance metrics, such as CPU utilization, and create CloudWatch Alarms that trigger when a metric crosses a defined threshold (e.g., 80%) for a specified number of consecutive evaluation periods (e.g., 10 minutes with a 1-minute period). This directly meets the requirement for monitoring and alerting on CPU utilization.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Amazon CloudWatch
Why this is correct
CloudWatch monitors metrics and can trigger alarms.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
AWS Trusted Advisor
Why it's wrong here
Trusted Advisor provides optimization checks, not monitoring.
AWS Config
Why it's wrong here
Config evaluates resource configurations, not real-time metrics.
AWS CloudTrail
Why it's wrong here
CloudTrail records API activity, not metrics.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse AWS CloudTrail (auditing API calls) or AWS Config (configuration compliance) with CloudWatch, thinking they can monitor performance metrics, but only CloudWatch provides metric collection and alarm-based alerting for EC2 CPU utilization.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, CloudWatch collects CPU utilization as a standard metric from the EC2 hypervisor at a 1-minute frequency for detailed monitoring (or 5-minute for basic). The alarm evaluates the metric against the threshold using a statistic (e.g., Average) over a specified number of periods (e.g., 10 consecutive periods of 1 minute each). A common real-world scenario is setting an alarm to trigger an Auto Scaling policy or SNS notification when CPU spikes, but note that the alarm state transition (OK to ALARM) requires the metric to breach the threshold for the full consecutive duration, not just a single spike.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
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
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation — study guide chapter
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FAQ
Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation — This question tests Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Amazon CloudWatch — Amazon CloudWatch is the correct service because it provides the ability to monitor EC2 instance metrics, such as CPU utilization, and create CloudWatch Alarms that trigger when a metric crosses a defined threshold (e.g., 80%) for a specified number of consecutive evaluation periods (e.g., 10 minutes with a 1-minute period). This directly meets the requirement for monitoring and alerting on CPU utilization.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 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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