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350-701 Practice Question: Deploying a cloud-native application using…
A company is deploying a cloud-native application using microservices on AWS. They need to ensure that inter-service communication is encrypted and authenticated. The security team wants to use mutual TLS (mTLS) without managing individual certificates. Which solution should they implement?
⚠ Common exam trap
Cisco often tests the distinction between authentication mechanisms (IAM SigV4 vs. mTLS) and automation requirements, leading candidates to choose a manual certificate storage solution (like Secrets Manager) instead of an integrated PKI and service mesh approach.
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
✓
Use AWS Certificate Manager Private CA with a service mesh (e.g., Istio) to issue and rotate certificates for each service.
AWS Certificate Manager Private CA can integrate with a service mesh like Istio to automatically issue, distribute, and rotate mTLS certificates for each microservice. This eliminates the need for manual certificate management while ensuring encrypted and authenticated inter-service communication via mutual TLS.
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 AWS IAM roles for each microservice to authenticate via AWS Signature Version 4.
Why it's wrong here
IAM roles are for AWS API access, not for mTLS between microservices.
- ✗
Store certificates in AWS Secrets Manager and configure sidecar proxies to retrieve them.
Why it's wrong here
Secrets Manager can store secrets but does not issue or manage certificates for mTLS.
- ✗
Deploy AWS CloudHSM to generate keys and certificates for each microservice.
Why it's wrong here
CloudHSM provides secure key storage but does not issue certificates or integrate directly with service mesh.
- ✓
Use AWS Certificate Manager Private CA with a service mesh (e.g., Istio) to issue and rotate certificates for each service.
Why this is correct
ACM Private CA can issue certificates for mTLS, and service mesh can automate certificate distribution.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 350-701 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Cisco 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 350-701 exam.