- A
Configure the ECS service to use a rolling update with a minimum healthy percent of 0 and a maximum percent of 100.
Why wrong: Incorrect: This would stop all old tasks before starting new ones, causing downtime.
- B
Increase the deregistration delay on the ALB target group to 300 seconds.
Why wrong: Incorrect: While this helps drain connections, it does not prevent the underlying task replacement from causing downtime if not combined with proper rolling update settings.
- C
Use a blue/green deployment with CodeDeploy and set the 'Minimum healthy percent' to 50.
Why wrong: Incorrect: Setting minimum healthy percent too low might cause capacity issues, and blue/green is good but not the only solution; this option does not guarantee zero downtime.
- D
Configure the ECS service to use a rolling update with a minimum healthy percent of 100 and a maximum percent of 200.
Correct: This ensures new tasks are started before old ones are terminated, allowing zero downtime.
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 has a production application running on Amazon ECS with Fargate launch type. The application uses an Application Load Balancer. The SysOps administrator notices that during deployments, the application experiences a brief period of downtime. Which combination of actions should the administrator take to achieve zero-downtime deployments?
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
Configure the ECS service to use a rolling update with a minimum healthy percent of 100 and a maximum percent of 200.
Option D is correct because setting the minimum healthy percent to 100 and maximum percent to 200 ensures that during a rolling update, the ECS service first launches new tasks (up to 200% of the desired count) before terminating any old tasks. This guarantees that the ALB always has a sufficient number of healthy targets to serve traffic, eliminating downtime. The Application Load Balancer distributes traffic between old and new tasks during the transition, achieving zero-downtime deployments.
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.
- ✗
Configure the ECS service to use a rolling update with a minimum healthy percent of 0 and a maximum percent of 100.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: This would stop all old tasks before starting new ones, causing downtime.
- ✗
Increase the deregistration delay on the ALB target group to 300 seconds.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: While this helps drain connections, it does not prevent the underlying task replacement from causing downtime if not combined with proper rolling update settings.
- ✗
Use a blue/green deployment with CodeDeploy and set the 'Minimum healthy percent' to 50.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect: Setting minimum healthy percent too low might cause capacity issues, and blue/green is good but not the only solution; this option does not guarantee zero downtime.
- ✓
Configure the ECS service to use a rolling update with a minimum healthy percent of 100 and a maximum percent of 200.
Why this is correct
Correct: This ensures new tasks are started before old ones are terminated, allowing zero downtime.
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 the minimum healthy percent and maximum percent values, mistakenly thinking that allowing all tasks to be replaced at once (0/100) is acceptable, or that blue/green deployments inherently guarantee zero downtime without proper configuration.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Under the hood, ECS rolling updates use the ECS service scheduler to manage task replacement. With minimum healthy percent=100 and maximum percent=200, the scheduler launches new tasks up to double the desired count, ensuring the ALB target group always has at least 100% of the desired count in a healthy state. The ALB’s health checks and connection draining (deregistration delay) work in tandem to gracefully transition traffic, but the key is maintaining a sufficient number of healthy targets throughout the update. In real-world scenarios, this configuration is critical for production services with strict SLAs, as it prevents the 'thundering herd' problem and ensures continuous availability.
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?
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: Configure the ECS service to use a rolling update with a minimum healthy percent of 100 and a maximum percent of 200. — Option D is correct because setting the minimum healthy percent to 100 and maximum percent to 200 ensures that during a rolling update, the ECS service first launches new tasks (up to 200% of the desired count) before terminating any old tasks. This guarantees that the ALB always has a sufficient number of healthy targets to serve traffic, eliminating downtime. The Application Load Balancer distributes traffic between old and new tasks during the transition, achieving zero-downtime deployments.
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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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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