This SY0-701 practice question tests your understanding of security architecture. 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.
Exhibit
Order service topology:
Internet -> Load balancer -> App Server A
Internet -> Load balancer -> App Server B
Database -> Single instance in AZ1
Application servers are stateless.
Requirement: service must continue if one app server goes down, with no manual failover steps.
Based on the exhibit, which architecture best meets the goal of keeping the order service running if one application server fails?
Exhibit
Order service topology:
Internet -> Load balancer -> App Server A
Internet -> Load balancer -> App Server B
Database -> Single instance in AZ1
Application servers are stateless.
Requirement: service must continue if one app server goes down, with no manual failover steps.
A
Use one active server with a warm standby server that is started manually during outages.
Why wrong: A warm standby can recover service, but manual activation delays failover and reduces availability.
B
Run the application servers active-active behind the load balancer.
Active-active design keeps service available because surviving servers continue handling traffic automatically.
C
Store the application binaries on RAID 1 disks to prevent service interruption.
Why wrong: RAID helps with storage resilience, but it does not provide application-server redundancy by itself.
D
Take nightly backups of the application servers and restore them after a failure.
Why wrong: Backups help recovery after loss, but they do not provide continuous service when a server fails.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Run the application servers active-active behind the load balancer.
Option B is correct because an active-active architecture behind a load balancer ensures that if one application server fails, the load balancer automatically redirects traffic to the remaining healthy server(s). This provides high availability and fault tolerance without manual intervention, keeping the order service running continuously.
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 one active server with a warm standby server that is started manually during outages.
Why it's wrong here
A warm standby can recover service, but manual activation delays failover and reduces availability.
✓
Run the application servers active-active behind the load balancer.
Why this is correct
Active-active design keeps service available because surviving servers continue handling traffic automatically.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Store the application binaries on RAID 1 disks to prevent service interruption.
Why it's wrong here
RAID helps with storage resilience, but it does not provide application-server redundancy by itself.
✗
Take nightly backups of the application servers and restore them after a failure.
Why it's wrong here
Backups help recovery after loss, but they do not provide continuous service when a server fails.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse data redundancy (RAID 1) with server-level fault tolerance, or they mistake backup strategies (nightly backups) for high-availability solutions, failing to recognize that only active-active or active-passive clustering with automatic failover meets the requirement of uninterrupted service during a server failure.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
In an active-active configuration, the load balancer (e.g., HAProxy, NGINX, or an F5 LTM) uses health checks (such as HTTP GET requests to a /health endpoint) to monitor each application server. If a server fails to respond within a configured timeout (e.g., 5 seconds) or returns a non-200 status, the load balancer removes it from the pool and distributes traffic only to the remaining servers. This failover is typically sub-second and transparent to clients, provided session persistence (sticky sessions) is not required or is handled via a shared session store like Redis.
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 security analyst at a medium-sized enterprise encounters this scenario during an investigation or architecture review. The correct answer reflects best practice for the specific threat or control described. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Security exam questions test whether you can match controls to threats in context — not just recall definitions.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this SY0-701 question in full detail.
Security Architecture — This question tests Security Architecture — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Run the application servers active-active behind the load balancer. — Option B is correct because an active-active architecture behind a load balancer ensures that if one application server fails, the load balancer automatically redirects traffic to the remaining healthy server(s). This provides high availability and fault tolerance without manual intervention, keeping the order service running continuously.
What should I do if I get this SY0-701 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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Question Discussion
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