CV0-004 Cloud Architecture and Design Practice Question
A cloud architect is designing a highly available architecture on AWS for a web application that must survive the failure of an entire Availability Zone. The application uses an Application Load Balancer, web servers, and an Amazon RDS database. Which TWO design actions should the architect take? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is believing that automated backups provide high availability; backups are for recovery, not for automatic failover during an AZ outage.
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
✓
Deploy the web servers in an Auto Scaling group that spans at least two Availability Zones.
To survive an Availability Zone failure, the web tier must be distributed across multiple AZs using an Auto Scaling group, and the database tier must use a Multi-AZ deployment for automatic failover. These two actions together provide high availability for both compute and data layers.
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 Application Load Balancer to route traffic only to a single Availability Zone to reduce latency.
Why it's wrong here
Routing traffic to a single Availability Zone eliminates high availability because an AZ failure would take down all targets. The Application Load Balancer is inherently multi-AZ when targets are registered in multiple AZs, so restricting to one AZ defeats the purpose. This action would increase risk, not reduce it.
- ✓
Deploy the web servers in an Auto Scaling group that spans at least two Availability Zones.
Why this is correct
An Auto Scaling group spanning multiple Availability Zones ensures that if one AZ fails, instances in the remaining AZ continue to serve traffic. The Auto Scaling group can also replace failed instances automatically. This provides compute-layer high availability and is a fundamental design practice for surviving AZ failures.
- ✓
Enable a Multi-AZ deployment for the Amazon RDS database.
Why this is correct
A Multi-AZ deployment for Amazon RDS creates a synchronous standby replica in a different Availability Zone. If the primary database fails or its AZ becomes unavailable, RDS automatically fails over to the standby, maintaining database availability. This is the standard approach for achieving high availability for RDS.
- ✗
Place the RDS database in a single Availability Zone and rely on automated backups for failover.
Why it's wrong here
Automated backups are for point-in-time recovery, not for automatic failover. If the database is in a single AZ and that AZ fails, the database becomes unavailable until a restore is performed, which can take significant time. This does not meet the requirement to survive an AZ failure without manual intervention.
- ✗
Use Amazon S3 to store the database files and point the application to the S3 bucket.
Why it's wrong here
Amazon S3 is object storage and cannot be used as a direct replacement for a relational database like Amazon RDS. Pointing the application to an S3 bucket would not provide the transactional, relational capabilities required. This action does not address database high availability and would break the application.
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official CompTIA exam blueprint
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