AWS SAA-C03 Practice Questions with Explanations

Q: A company collects data for temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure in cities across multiple continents. The average volume of data that the company collects from each site daily is 500 GB. Each site has a high-speed Internet connection. The company wants to aggregate the data from all thes

A. S3 Transfer Acceleration uses CloudFront's globally distributed edge locations to accelerate uploads to S3, making it ideal for geographically dispersed sites with high- speed internet connections uploading large volumes daily. Multipart uploads further optimize the transfer of large files. This solution minimizes operational complexity by requiring no intermediate infrastructure or cross-region replication logic.

Q: A company needs the ability to analyze the log files of its proprietary application. The logs are stored in JSON format in an Amazon S3 bucket. Queries will be simple and will run on-demand. A solutions architect needs to perform the analysis with minimal changes to the existing architecture. What s

C. Amazon Athena is purpose-built for running ad-hoc SQL queries directly against data stored in S3 without requiring any infrastructure setup or data movement. It natively supports JSON format and requires minimal operational overhead, making it the least complex solution for on-demand log analysis.

Q: A company uses AWS Organizations to manage multiple AWS accounts for different departments. The management account has an Amazon S3 bucket that contains project reports. The company wants to limit access to this S3 bucket to only users of accounts within the organization in AWS Organizations. Which

A. The aws:PrincipalOrgID global condition key restricts access to principals from any account within the specified organization, automatically covering all current and future organization members with a single policy statement. This requires no ongoing maintenance when accounts are added or removed from the organization.

Q: An application runs on an Amazon EC2 instance in a VPC. The application processes logs that are stored in an Amazon S3 bucket. The EC2 instance needs to access the S3 bucket without connectivity to the internet. Which solution will provide private network connectivity to Amazon S3?

A. A gateway VPC endpoint for S3 provides private network connectivity from EC2 instances to S3 without requiring internet access. It uses route table entries to route S3 traffic through AWS's private backbone, and works with IAM roles for access control.

Q: A company is hosting a web application on AWS using a single Amazon EC2 instance that stores user-uploaded documents in an Amazon EBS volume. For better scalability and availability, the company duplicated the architecture and created a second EC2 instance and EBS volume in another Availability Zone

C. Amazon EFS provides a shared, managed NFS file system that both EC2 instances can access simultaneously, ensuring all users see the complete set of documents regardless of which instance handles their request. This is the standard solution for applications requiring shared state across multiple instances.

August 14, 2026

Free AWS SAA-C03 practice questions. 50 of them, each with the correct answer, a full explanation, and the reason every other option is wrong. These are real questions from the SAA-C03 exam, not paraphrases, and every explanation is written out rather than just marking the right letter.

They are drawn from the same bank as the full SAA-C03 pack, which has 1019 questions in total.

Get the full SAA-C03 question bank (1019 questions) →

SAA-C03 practice questions

Question 1

A company collects data for temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure in cities across multiple continents. The average volume of data that the company collects from each site daily is 500 GB. Each site has a high-speed Internet connection. The company wants to aggregate the data from all these global sites as quickly as possible in a single Amazon S3 bucket. The solution must minimize operational complexity. Which solution meets these requirements?

A. Turn on S3 Transfer Acceleration on the destination S3 bucket. Use multipart uploads to directly upload site data to the destination S3 bucket.
B. Upload the data from each site to an S3 bucket in the closest Region. Use S3 Cross-Region Replication to copy objects to the destination S3 bucket. Then remove the data from the origin S3 bucket.
C. Schedule AWS Snowball Edge Storage Optimized device jobs daily to transfer data from each site to the closest Region. Use S3 CrossRegion Replication to copy objects to the destination S3 bucket.
D. Upload the data from each site to an Amazon EC2 instance in the closest Region. Store the data in an Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volume. At regular intervals, take an EBS snapshot and copy it to the Region that contains the destination S3 bucket. Restore the EBS volume in that Region.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: A

S3 Transfer Acceleration uses CloudFront's globally distributed edge locations to accelerate uploads to S3, making it ideal for geographically dispersed sites with high- speed internet connections uploading large volumes daily. Multipart uploads further optimize the transfer of large files. This solution minimizes operational complexity by requiring no intermediate infrastructure or cross-region replication logic.

Why the other options are wrong:

B. Requires maintaining multiple S3 buckets and cross-region replication adds latency and complexity compared to direct acceleration.
C. Snowball Edge is designed for one-time bulk transfers, not daily 500 GB uploads, and introduces significant operational overhead.
D. Using EC2 instances and EBS snapshots is unnecessarily complex and slower than direct S3 acceleration for this use case.

Question 2

A company needs the ability to analyze the log files of its proprietary application. The logs are stored in JSON format in an Amazon S3 bucket. Queries will be simple and will run on-demand. A solutions architect needs to perform the analysis with minimal changes to the existing architecture. What should the solutions architect do to meet these requirements with the LEAST amount of operational overhead?

A. Use Amazon Redshift to load all the content into one place and run the SQL queries as needed.
B. Use Amazon CloudWatch Logs to store the logs. Run SQL queries as needed from the Amazon CloudWatch console.
C. Use Amazon Athena directly with Amazon S3 to run the queries as needed.
D. Use AWS Glue to catalog the logs. Use a transient Apache Spark cluster on Amazon EMR to run the SQL queries as needed.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: C

Amazon Athena is purpose-built for running ad-hoc SQL queries directly against data stored in S3 without requiring any infrastructure setup or data movement. It natively supports JSON format and requires minimal operational overhead, making it the least complex solution for on-demand log analysis.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. Redshift requires loading data into a cluster and managing that infrastructure, adding unnecessary complexity and cost for simple on-demand queries.
B. CloudWatch Logs is not designed for analyzing large volumes of existing S3 data and requires moving data out of S3.
D. AWS Glue and EMR require significant setup, cluster management, and ongoing operational overhead compared to Athena.

Question 3

A company uses AWS Organizations to manage multiple AWS accounts for different departments. The management account has an Amazon S3 bucket that contains project reports. The company wants to limit access to this S3 bucket to only users of accounts within the organization in AWS Organizations. Which solution meets these requirements with the LEAST amount of operational overhead?

A. Add the aws PrincipalOrgID global condition key with a reference to the organization ID to the S3 bucket policy.
B. Create an organizational unit (OU) for each department. Add the aws:PrincipalOrgPaths global condition key to the S3 bucket policy.
C. Use AWS CloudTrail to monitor the CreateAccount, InviteAccountToOrganization, LeaveOrganization, and RemoveAccountFromOrganization events. Update the S3 bucket policy accordingly.
D. Tag each user that needs access to the S3 bucket. Add the aws:PrincipalTag global condition key to the S3 bucket policy.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: A

The aws:PrincipalOrgID global condition key restricts access to principals from any account within the specified organization, automatically covering all current and future organization members with a single policy statement. This requires no ongoing maintenance when accounts are added or removed from the organization.

Why the other options are wrong:

B. PrincipalOrgPaths requires tracking and managing specific OU structures in the bucket policy, adding operational overhead.
C. CloudTrail monitoring requires manual policy updates whenever accounts join or leave, creating significant operational burden.
D. Manual tagging of users does not scale across an organization and requires continuous updates as users change roles or departments.

Question 4

An application runs on an Amazon EC2 instance in a VPC. The application processes logs that are stored in an Amazon S3 bucket. The EC2 instance needs to access the S3 bucket without connectivity to the internet. Which solution will provide private network connectivity to Amazon S3?

A. Create a gateway VPC endpoint to the S3 bucket.
B. Stream the logs to Amazon CloudWatch Logs. Export the logs to the S3 bucket.
C. Create an instance profile on Amazon EC2 to allow S3 access.
D. Create an Amazon API Gateway API with a private link to access the S3 endpoint.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: A

A gateway VPC endpoint for S3 provides private network connectivity from EC2 instances to S3 without requiring internet access. It uses route table entries to route S3 traffic through AWS's private backbone, and works with IAM roles for access control.

Why the other options are wrong:

B. CloudWatch Logs export is an unnecessary intermediary that adds complexity rather than providing direct private access.
C. An instance profile grants IAM permissions but does not provide private network connectivity-internet access would still be required.
D. API Gateway with private link is overly complex for direct S3 access and not the standard approach for this requirement.

Question 5

A company is hosting a web application on AWS using a single Amazon EC2 instance that stores user-uploaded documents in an Amazon EBS volume. For better scalability and availability, the company duplicated the architecture and created a second EC2 instance and EBS volume in another Availability Zone, placing both behind an Application Load Balancer. After completing this change, users reported that, each time they refreshed the website, they could see one subset of their documents or the other, but never all of the documents at the same time. What should a solutions architect propose to ensure users see all of their documents at once?

A. Copy the data so both EBS volumes contain all the documents
B. Configure the Application Load Balancer to direct a user to the server with the documents
C. Copy the data from both EBS volumes to Amazon EFS. Modify the application to save new documents to Amazon EFS
D. Configure the Application Load Balancer to send the request to both servers. Return each document from the correct server

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: C

Amazon EFS provides a shared, managed NFS file system that both EC2 instances can access simultaneously, ensuring all users see the complete set of documents regardless of which instance handles their request. This is the standard solution for applications requiring shared state across multiple instances.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. Copying data between EBS volumes requires manual synchronization and does not solve the ongoing consistency problem for new uploads.
B. Session persistence does not work well with distributed uploads and does not address the architectural issue of separate storage per instance.
D. Request distribution across servers and returning documents from correct servers is complex, error-prone, and does not solve the fundamental shared storage problem.

Question 6

A company uses NFS to store large video files in on-premises network attached storage. Each video file ranges in size from 1 MB to 500 GB. The total storage is 70 TB and is no longer growing. The company decides to migrate the video files to Amazon S3. The company must migrate the video files as soon as possible while using the least possible network bandwidth. Which solution will meet these requirements?

A. Create an S3 bucket. Create an IAM role that has permissions to write to the S3 bucket. Use the AWS CLI to copy all files locally to the S3 bucket.
B. Create an AWS Snowball Edge job. Receive a Snowball Edge device on premises. Use the Snowball Edge client to transfer data to the device. Return the device so that AWS can import the data into Amazon S3.
C. Deploy an S3 File Gateway on premises. Create a public service endpoint to connect to the S3 File Gateway. Create an S3 bucket. Create a new NFS file share on the S3 File Gateway. Point the new file share to the S3 bucket. Transfer the data from the existing NFS file share to the S3 File Gateway.
D. Set up an AWS Direct Connect connection between the on-premises network and AWS. Deploy an S3 File Gateway on premises. Create a public virtual interface (VIF) to connect to the S3 File Gateway. Create an S3 bucket. Create a new NFS file share on the S3 File Gateway. Point the new file share to the S3 bucket. Transfer the data from the existing NFS file share to the S3 File Gateway.

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Correct answer: B

AWS Snowball Edge is purpose-built for migrating large datasets (70 TB fits within device capacity) in a single operation, using the least network bandwidth by physically transporting data. This is significantly faster and more bandwidth-efficient than any network-based approach for one-time bulk transfers of this scale.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. AWS CLI copy over the network would consume enormous bandwidth and take far longer than physical transfer.
C. S3 File Gateway still transfers data over the network, consuming the same bandwidth as a direct approach without the speed benefits of Snowball.
D. Direct Connect with S3 File Gateway still uses network bandwidth and adds the complexity and cost of Direct Connect setup without the efficiency of physical data transport.

Question 7

A company has an application that ingests incoming messages. Dozens of other applications and microservices then quickly consume these messages. The number of messages varies drastically and sometimes increases suddenly to 100,000 each second. The company wants to decouple the solution and increase scalability. Which solution meets these requirements?

A. Persist the messages to Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics. Configure the consumer applications to read and process the messages.
B. Deploy the ingestion application on Amazon EC2 instances in an Auto Scaling group to scale the number of EC2 instances based on CPU metrics.
C. Write the messages to Amazon Kinesis Data Streams with a single shard. Use an AWS Lambda function to preprocess messages and store them in Amazon DynamoDB. Configure the consumer applications to read from DynamoDB to process the messages.
D. Publish the messages to an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic with multiple Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SOS) subscriptions. Configure the consumer applications to process the messages from the queues.

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Correct answer: D

Amazon SQS provides durable message queuing that decouples producers from consumers, and SNS with multiple SQS subscriptions enables multiple independent consumer applications to process the same messages. This architecture naturally scales to handle sudden spikes to 100,000 messages per second and allows each consumer application to scale independently.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. Kinesis Data Analytics is for stream processing and analysis, not for decoupling and fan-out to multiple independent consumer applications.
B. Auto Scaling EC2 based on CPU does not decouple the ingestion from consumption and doesn't address the fan-out requirement for multiple consumers.
C. Single Kinesis shard is a bottleneck for 100,000 messages per second, and DynamoDB adds unnecessary storage complexity when a queue is the appropriate pattern.

Question 8

A company is migrating a distributed application to AWS. The application serves variable workloads. The legacy platform consists of a primary server that coordinates jobs across multiple compute nodes. The company wants to modernize the application with a solution that maximizes resiliency and scalability. How should a solutions architect design the architecture to meet these requirements?

A. Configure an Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) queue as a destination for the jobs. Implement the compute nodes with Amazon EC2 instances that are managed in an Auto Scaling group. Configure EC2 Auto Scaling to use scheduled scaling.
B. Configure an Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) queue as a destination for the jobs. Implement the compute nodes with Amazon EC2 instances that are managed in an Auto Scaling group. Configure EC2 Auto Scaling based on the size of the queue.
C. Implement the primary server and the compute nodes with Amazon EC2 instances that are managed in an Auto Scaling group. Configure AWS CloudTrail as a destination for the jobs. Configure EC2 Auto Scaling based on the load on the primary server.
D. Implement the primary server and the compute nodes with Amazon EC2 instances that are managed in an Auto Scaling group. Configure Amazon EventBridge (Amazon CloudWatch Events) as a destination for the jobs. Configure EC2 Auto Scaling based on the load on the compute nodes.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: B

SQS serves as a distributed job queue replacing the legacy primary server coordination role, and EC2 Auto Scaling based on queue depth (ApproximateNumberOfMessages) naturally scales compute capacity to match workload demand. This maximizes resiliency by removing the single point of failure of a primary server and provides true elasticity for variable workloads.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. Scheduled scaling does not respond to actual demand and cannot handle unexpected workload spikes characteristic of variable workloads.
C. Keeping the primary server eliminates the resiliency benefit and contradicts modernization; CloudTrail is an audit tool, not a job destination.
D. EventBridge is not designed as a job queue, and scaling based on compute node load is reactive rather than proactive like queue-based scaling.

Question 9

A company is running an SMB file server in its data center. The file server stores large files that are accessed frequently for the first few days after the files are created. After 7 days the files are rarely accessed. The total data size is increasing and is close to the company's total storage capacity. A solutions architect must increase the company's available storage space without losing low-latency access to the most recently accessed files. The solutions architect must also provide file lifecycle management to avoid future storage issues. Which solution will meet these requirements?

A. Use AWS DataSync to copy data that is older than 7 days from the SMB file server to AWS.
B. Create an Amazon S3 File Gateway to extend the company's storage space. Create an S3 Lifecycle policy to transition the data to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 7 days.
C. Create an Amazon FSx for Windows File Server file system to extend the company's storage space.
D. Install a utility on each user's computer to access Amazon S3. Create an S3 Lifecycle policy to transition the data to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after 7 days.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: B

Amazon S3 File Gateway provides SMB access to S3 storage while maintaining low- latency caching for frequently accessed files on the local gateway appliance. This extends storage capacity without losing performance on recent files. The S3 Lifecycle policy automatically transitions older data to cheaper storage classes (Glacier Deep Archive after 7 days), preventing future capacity issues. This solution directly addresses the requirement for low-latency access to recent files combined with automatic lifecycle management.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. DataSync copies data but doesn't provide ongoing SMB access or automatic lifecycle policies; it's a one-time migration tool.
C. FSx for Windows extends storage space but doesn't implement automatic lifecycle management or transition old data to cheaper tiers.
D. Installing utilities on user computers and using S3 directly removes SMB compatibility and the seamless file server experience; also Glacier Flexible Retrieval still has retrieval delays.

Question 10

A company is building an ecommerce web application on AWS. The application sends information about new orders to an Amazon API Gateway REST API to process. The company wants to ensure that orders are processed in the order that they are received. Which solution will meet these requirements?

A. Use an API Gateway integration to publish a message to an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic when the application receives an order. Subscribe an AWS Lambda function to the topic to perform processing.
B. Use an API Gateway integration to send a message to an Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) FIFO queue when the application receives an order. Configure the SQS FIFO queue to invoke an AWS Lambda function for processing.
C. Use an API Gateway authorizer to block any requests while the application processes an order.
D. Use an API Gateway integration to send a message to an Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) standard queue when the application receives an order. Configure the SQS standard queue to invoke an AWS Lambda function for processing.

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Correct answer: B

SQS FIFO (First-In-First-Out) queues guarantee that messages are processed in the exact order they are received, which is critical for order processing. When API Gateway sends messages to an SQS FIFO queue and invokes a Lambda function for processing, the ordering guarantee is maintained throughout. FIFO queues are specifically designed for scenarios where message order matters.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. SNS topics do not guarantee message ordering; they distribute messages to subscribers without maintaining order.
C. API Gateway authorizers cannot block requests during processing; they authenticate/authorize requests but don't manage order processing.
D. SQS standard queues do not guarantee ordering; messages can be processed out of order, violating the requirement.

Question 11

A company has an application that runs on Amazon EC2 instances and uses an Amazon Aurora database. The EC2 instances connect to the database by using user names and passwords that are stored locally in a file. The company wants to minimize the operational overhead of credential management. What should a solutions architect do to accomplish this goal?

A. Use AWS Secrets Manager. Turn on automatic rotation.
B. Use AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store. Turn on automatic rotation.
C. Create an Amazon S3 bucket to store objects that are encrypted with an AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) encryption key. Migrate the credential file to the S3 bucket. Point the application to the S3 bucket.
D. Create an encrypted Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volume for each EC2 instance. Attach the new EBS volume to each EC2 instance. Migrate the credential file to the new EBS volume. Point the application to the new EBS volume.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: A

AWS Secrets Manager is purpose-built for managing database credentials with automatic rotation capabilities. It natively integrates with RDS databases, automatically rotating credentials without application downtime. This minimizes operational overhead by eliminating manual credential management and reducing the security risk of stored passwords. Secrets Manager's rotation feature is specifically designed for this use case.

Why the other options are wrong:

B. Systems Manager Parameter Store lacks native automatic rotation for RDS database credentials; rotation requires custom Lambda functions.
C. Storing credentials in S3 requires manual rotation and adds unnecessary operational steps; it's less secure than purpose-built secrets management.
D. Storing credentials on EBS volumes requires manual rotation, increases operational overhead, and is less secure than centralized secrets management.

Question 12

A global company hosts its web application on Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The web application has static data and dynamic data. The company stores its static data in an Amazon S3 bucket. The company wants to improve performance and reduce latency for the static data and dynamic data. The company is using its own domain name registered with Amazon Route 53. What should a solutions architect do to meet these requirements?

A. Create an Amazon CloudFront distribution that has the S3 bucket and the ALB as origins. Configure Route 53 to route traffic to the CloudFront distribution.
B. Create an Amazon CloudFront distribution that has the ALB as an origin. Create an AWS Global Accelerator standard accelerator that has the S3 bucket as an endpoint Configure Route 53 to route traffic to the CloudFront distribution.
C. Create an Amazon CloudFront distribution that has the S3 bucket as an origin. Create an AWS Global Accelerator standard accelerator that has the ALB and the CloudFront distribution as endpoints. Create a custom domain name that points to the accelerator DNS name. Use the custom domain name as an endpoint for the web application.
D. Create an Amazon CloudFront distribution that has the ALB as an origin. Create an AWS Global Accelerator standard accelerator that has the S3 bucket as an endpoint. Create two domain names. Point one domain name to the CloudFront DNS name for dynamic content. Point the other domain name to the accelerator DNS name for static content. Use the domain names as endpoints for the web application.

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Correct answer: A

CloudFront with multiple origins (S3 for static data and ALB for dynamic data) provides optimal performance and reduced latency globally. CloudFront caches static content at edge locations while routing dynamic requests to the ALB origin. Configuring Route 53 to direct traffic to the CloudFront distribution creates a unified entry point. This single-solution approach addresses both static and dynamic content acceleration without requiring multiple domain names or complex routing logic.

Why the other options are wrong:

B. Global Accelerator with S3 as an endpoint is awkward and not its intended use; Global Accelerator is for accelerating ALB/EC2, not S3 directly.
C. Using Global Accelerator with CloudFront as an endpoint adds unnecessary complexity and cost; CloudFront already handles global distribution.
D. Splitting static and dynamic content across two domain names creates operational complexity and a fragmented user experience; CloudFront can handle both efficiently.

Question 13

A company performs monthly maintenance on its AWS infrastructure. During these maintenance activities, the company needs to rotate the credentials for its Amazon RDS for MySQL databases across multiple AWS Regions. Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?

A. Store the credentials as secrets in AWS Secrets Manager. Use multi-Region secret replication for the required Regions. Configure Secrets Manager to rotate the secrets on a schedule.
B. Store the credentials as secrets in AWS Systems Manager by creating a secure string parameter. Use multi-Region secret replication for the required Regions. Configure Systems Manager to rotate the secrets on a schedule.
C. Store the credentials in an Amazon S3 bucket that has server-side encryption (SSE) enabled. Use Amazon EventBridge (Amazon CloudWatch Events) to invoke an AWS Lambda function to rotate the credentials.
D. Encrypt the credentials as secrets by using AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) multi-Region customer managed keys. Store the secrets in an Amazon DynamoDB global table. Use an AWS Lambda function to retrieve the secrets from DynamoDB. Use the RDS API to rotate the secrets.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: A

AWS Secrets Manager is purpose-built for credential rotation and includes native multi- Region replication with automatic rotation scheduling. It handles RDS credential rotation automatically without custom code. Multi-Region replication ensures credentials are available across regions with minimal operational overhead. This is the least operational approach as Secrets Manager manages the entire rotation lifecycle.

Why the other options are wrong:

B. Systems Manager Parameter Store does not support automatic rotation for RDS credentials; rotation requires custom Lambda functions.
C. S3 with EventBridge and Lambda requires building custom rotation logic, significantly increasing operational overhead.
D. DynamoDB global tables with custom Lambda functions require extensive custom development and management of rotation logic.

Question 14

A company runs an ecommerce application on Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. The instances run in an Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling group across multiple Availability Zones. The Auto Scaling group scales based on CPU utilization metrics. The ecommerce application stores the transaction data in a MySQL 8.0 database that is hosted on a large EC2 instance. The database's performance degrades quickly as application load increases. The application handles more read requests than write transactions. The company wants a solution that will automatically scale the database to meet the demand of unpredictable read workloads while maintaining high availability. Which solution will meet these requirements?

A. Use Amazon Redshift with a single node for leader and compute functionality.
B. Use Amazon RDS with a Single-AZ deployment Configure Amazon RDS to add reader instances in a different Availability Zone.
C. Use Amazon Aurora with a Multi-AZ deployment. Configure Aurora Auto Scaling with Aurora Replicas.
D. Use Amazon ElastiCache for Memcached with EC2 Spot Instances.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: C

Amazon Aurora with Multi-AZ deployment and Aurora Auto Scaling is specifically designed for unpredictable read-heavy workloads. Aurora Auto Scaling automatically adds read replicas based on demand, scaling horizontally to handle variable load. Multi-AZ ensures high availability. Aurora also provides superior performance compared to traditional MySQL, automatically optimizing for read-intensive workloads.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. Redshift is for data warehousing and analytics, not transactional OLTP workloads; it doesn't automatically scale for unpredictable reads.
B. Standard RDS with read replicas requires manual scaling configuration and doesn't auto-scale based on demand like Aurora does.
D. ElastiCache is a caching layer, not a database replacement; it doesn't handle transaction data persistence requirements.

Question 15

A company recently migrated to AWS and wants to implement a solution to protect the traffic that flows in and out of the production VPC. The company had an inspection server in its on-premises data center. The inspection server performed specific operations such as traffic flow inspection and traffic filtering. The company wants to have the same functionalities in the AWS Cloud. Which solution will meet these requirements?

A. Use Amazon GuardDuty for traffic inspection and traffic filtering in the production VPC.
B. Use Traffic Mirroring to mirror traffic from the production VPC for traffic inspection and filtering.
C. Use AWS Network Firewall to create the required rules for traffic inspection and traffic filtering for the production VPC.
D. Use AWS Firewall Manager to create the required rules for traffic inspection and traffic filtering for the production VPC.

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Correct answer: C

AWS Network Firewall is designed to provide network-level protection with traffic inspection and filtering capabilities similar to on-premises inspection servers. It allows creation of custom rules for inspecting and filtering traffic flowing in and out of VPCs. This directly replaces the inspection server functionality from the on-premises data center with AWS-native capabilities.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. GuardDuty is a threat detection service using machine learning; it doesn't provide manual traffic filtering rules like an inspection server.
B. Traffic Mirroring only copies traffic for inspection; it doesn't provide the filtering and rule-based blocking capabilities needed.
D. AWS Firewall Manager is for centrally managing WAF and Shield policies across accounts, not for VPC-level traffic inspection and filtering.

Question 16

A company hosts a data lake on AWS. The data lake consists of data in Amazon S3 and Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL. The company needs a reporting solution that provides data visualization and includes all the data sources within the data lake. Only the company's management team should have full access to all the visualizations. The rest of the company should have only limited access. Which solution will meet these requirements?

A. Create an analysis in Amazon QuickSight. Connect all the data sources and create new datasets. Publish dashboards to visualize the data. Share the dashboards with the appropriate IAM roles.
B. Create an analysis in Amazon QuickSight. Connect all the data sources and create new datasets. Publish dashboards to visualize the data. Share the dashboards with the appropriate users and groups.
C. Create an AWS Glue table and crawler for the data in Amazon S3. Create an AWS Glue extract, transform, and load (ETL) job to produce reports. Publish the reports to Amazon S3. Use S3 bucket policies to limit access to the reports.
D. Create an AWS Glue table and crawler for the data in Amazon S3. Use Amazon Athena Federated Query to access data within Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL. Generate reports by using Amazon Athena. Publish the reports to Amazon S3. Use S3 bucket policies to limit access to the reports.

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Correct answer: B

Amazon QuickSight is the appropriate service for creating data visualizations from multiple data sources (S3 and RDS). It natively supports dataset creation, analysis, and dashboard publishing. Sharing dashboards with specific users and groups (not just IAM roles) allows granular access control where management can have full access while others have limited access. QuickSight's user and group-based sharing is the standard approach for this requirement.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. QuickSight sharing with IAM roles is less flexible for mixed internal/external user scenarios and doesn't provide the same granular dashboard-level access control as user/group sharing.
C. Glue and Athena are for ETL and querying; they don't provide interactive visualization dashboards or easy access control granularity.
D. Glue and Athena-based reporting requires publishing static reports to S3 rather than interactive dashboards, limiting the visualization and real-time capabilities.

Question 17

A company is implementing a new business application. The application runs on two Amazon EC2 instances and uses an Amazon S3 bucket for document storage. A solutions architect needs to ensure that the EC2 instances can access the S3 bucket. What should the solutions architect do to meet this requirement?

A. Create an IAM role that grants access to the S3 bucket. Attach the role to the EC2 instances.
B. Create an IAM policy that grants access to the S3 bucket. Attach the policy to the EC2 instances.
C. Create an IAM group that grants access to the S3 bucket. Attach the group to the EC2 instances.
D. Create an IAM user that grants access to the S3 bucket. Attach the user account to the EC2 instances.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: A

IAM roles are the proper mechanism for granting AWS permissions to EC2 instances. A role is created with a policy that grants S3 access, then attached to the EC2 instances. When applications on the instances need to access S3, they use the temporary credentials provided by the instance metadata service, eliminating the need to store long- term credentials on the instances.

Why the other options are wrong:

B. Policies cannot be directly attached to EC2 instances; they must be attached to roles, users, or groups.
C. IAM groups are for organizing users, not for granting permissions to EC2 instances.
D. IAM users represent individual people or applications with permanent credentials, not the proper way to grant permissions to EC2 instances.

Question 18

A company has a three-tier web application that is deployed on AWS. The web servers are deployed in a public subnet in a VPC. The application servers and database servers are deployed in private subnets in the same VPC. The company has deployed a third- party virtual firewall appliance from AWS Marketplace in an inspection VPC. The appliance is configured with an IP interface that can accept IP packets. A solutions architect needs to integrate the web application with the appliance to inspect all traffic to the application before the traffic reaches the web server. Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?

A. Create a Network Load Balancer in the public subnet of the application's VPC to route the traffic to the appliance for packet inspection.
B. Create an Application Load Balancer in the public subnet of the application's VPC to route the traffic to the appliance for packet inspection.
C. Deploy a transit gateway in the inspection VPC. Configure route tables to route the incoming packets through the transit gateway.
D. Deploy a Gateway Load Balancer in the inspection VPC. Create a Gateway Load Balancer endpoint to receive the incoming packets and forward the packets to the appliance.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: D

A Gateway Load Balancer is specifically designed for transparent insertion of third-party virtual appliances into traffic flows. It operates at Layer 4 and can encapsulate traffic to send it to an appliance for inspection, then return it to the destination. Gateway Load Balancer endpoints in the application VPC receive incoming packets and forward them to the appliance in the inspection VPC, then return the inspected packets to their original destination. This approach minimizes operational overhead compared to managing transit gateways or routing configurations.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. A Network Load Balancer is not designed for transparent traffic inspection and would require significant custom routing logic.
B. An Application Load Balancer operates at Layer 7 and is designed for application- level routing, not transparent packet inspection.
C. While a transit gateway could route traffic, it requires more complex configuration and does not natively integrate with virtual appliances for inspection.

Question 19

A company wants to improve its ability to clone large amounts of production data into a test environment in the same AWS Region. The data is stored in Amazon EC2 instances on Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volumes. Modifications to the cloned data must not affect the production environment. The software that accesses this data requires consistently high I/O performance. A solutions architect needs to minimize the time that is required to clone the production data into the test environment. Which solution will meet these requirements?

A. Take EBS snapshots of the production EBS volumes. Restore the snapshots onto EC2 instance store volumes in the test environment.
B. Configure the production EBS volumes to use the EBS Multi-Attach feature. Take EBS snapshots of the production EBS volumes. Attach the production EBS volumes to the EC2 instances in the test environment.
C. Take EBS snapshots of the production EBS volumes. Create and initialize new EBS volumes. Attach the new EBS volumes to EC2 instances in the test environment before restoring the volumes from the production EBS snapshots.
D. Take EBS snapshots of the production EBS volumes. Turn on the EBS fast snapshot restore feature on the EBS snapshots. Restore the snapshots into new EBS volumes. Attach the new EBS volumes to EC2 instances in the test environment.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: D

EBS Fast Snapshot Restore (FSR) dramatically reduces the time needed to restore volumes from snapshots by pre-initializing the snapshot data on the new volume. This eliminates the I/O penalty that normally occurs when accessing data that hasn't been restored yet. By enabling FSR on the production snapshots and restoring them to new volumes, the solution achieves the fastest cloning time while maintaining consistently high I/O performance for the test environment, and the cloned data is independent of the production environment.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. EC2 instance store volumes are ephemeral and will lose data when the instance stops, making them unsuitable for persistent test data.
B. Multi-Attach allows multiple instances to attach the same volume, but modifications would affect the production environment, violating the requirement.
C. Creating and initializing new volumes before restoring snapshots adds unnecessary steps and does not provide the performance optimization of Fast Snapshot Restore.

Question 20

An ecommerce company wants to launch a one-deal-a-day website on AWS. Each day will feature exactly one product on sale for a period of 24 hours. The company wants to be able to handle millions of requests each hour with millisecond latency during peak hours. Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?

A. Use Amazon S3 to host the full website in different S3 buckets. Add Amazon CloudFront distributions. Set the S3 buckets as origins for the distributions. Store the order data in Amazon S3.
B. Deploy the full website on Amazon EC2 instances that run in Auto Scaling groups across multiple Availability Zones. Add an Application Load Balancer (ALB) to distribute the website traffic. Add another ALB for the backend APIs. Store the data in Amazon RDS for MySQL.
C. Migrate the full application to run in containers. Host the containers on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS). Use the Kubernetes Cluster Autoscaler to increase and decrease the number of pods to process bursts in traffic. Store the data in Amazon RDS for MySQL.
D. Use an Amazon S3 bucket to host the website's static content. Deploy an Amazon CloudFront distribution. Set the S3 bucket as the origin. Use Amazon API Gateway and AWS Lambda functions for the backend APIs. Store the data in Amazon DynamoDB.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: D

A serverless architecture using S3 for static content, CloudFront for global distribution and caching, API Gateway with Lambda for backend APIs, and DynamoDB for data storage provides the least operational overhead while meeting the requirements. CloudFront caches content for fast millisecond-latency delivery, Lambda auto-scales to handle millions of requests per hour without manual intervention, and DynamoDB handles the transaction workload. This approach requires no server management and scales automatically.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. Using multiple S3 buckets and storing order data in S3 is not optimal for transactional data and complicates querying.
B. Managing Auto Scaling groups across multiple AZs, ALBs, and RDS requires more operational overhead including capacity planning and database administration.
C. EKS requires cluster management, node provisioning, and Kubernetes expertise, which adds operational complexity compared to a fully serverless approach.

Question 21

A solutions architect is using Amazon S3 to design the storage architecture of a new digital media application. The media files must be resilient to the loss of an Availability Zone. Some files are accessed frequently while other files are rarely accessed in an unpredictable pattern. The solutions architect must minimize the costs of storing and retrieving the media files. Which storage option meets these requirements?

A. S3 Standard
B. S3 Intelligent-Tiering
C. S3 Standard-Infrequent Access (S3 Standard-IA)
D. S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access (S3 One Zone-IA)

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: B

S3 Intelligent-Tiering automatically moves objects between different access tiers based on actual access patterns, optimizing costs without requiring manual intervention. It provides Availability Zone resilience (unlike One Zone-IA), handles unpredictable access patterns (unlike Standard-IA which assumes infrequent access), and minimizes costs by automatically transitioning rarely-accessed files to cheaper storage tiers while keeping frequently-accessed files in Standard tier.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. S3 Standard is suitable for frequently accessed data but does not optimize costs for rarely accessed files.
C. S3 Standard-IA requires predictable infrequent access patterns and has a 30-day minimum storage duration; it doesn't automatically adapt to unpredictable access.
D. S3 One Zone-IA is not resilient to Availability Zone loss, violating the resilience requirement.

Question 22

A company is storing backup files by using Amazon S3 Standard storage. The files are accessed frequently for 1 month. However, the files are not accessed after 1 month. The company must keep the files indefinitely. Which storage solution will meet these requirements MOST cost-effectively?

A. Configure S3 Intelligent-Tiering to automatically migrate objects.
B. Create an S3 Lifecycle configuration to transition objects from S3 Standard to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 1 month.
C. Create an S3 Lifecycle configuration to transition objects from S3 Standard to S3 Standard-Infrequent Access (S3 Standard-IA) after 1 month.
D. Create an S3 Lifecycle configuration to transition objects from S3 Standard to S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access (S3 One Zone-IA) after 1 month.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: B

For backup files accessed frequently for one month then never accessed again, transitioning to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 1 month is the most cost-effective solution. Glacier Deep Archive has the lowest storage cost of all S3 classes and is designed for long-term archival retention. Since files are not accessed after the initial month, the retrieval costs of a deep archive tier are not a concern. This creates an automatic lifecycle transition that minimizes ongoing storage costs.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. S3 Intelligent-Tiering is more expensive than Glacier Deep Archive for truly infrequently accessed data that will never be retrieved.
C. S3 Standard-IA is more expensive than Glacier Deep Archive for archival purposes and not designed for indefinite retention.
D. S3 One Zone-IA does not provide sufficient durability for backup files and is more expensive than Glacier Deep Archive.

Question 23

A company observes an increase in Amazon EC2 costs in its most recent bill. The billing team notices unwanted vertical scaling of instance types for a couple of EC2 instances. A solutions architect needs to create a graph comparing the last 2 months of EC2 costs and perform an in-depth analysis to identify the root cause of the vertical scaling. How should the solutions architect generate the information with the LEAST operational overhead?

A. Use AWS Budgets to create a budget report and compare EC2 costs based on instance types.
B. Use Cost Explorer's granular filtering feature to perform an in-depth analysis of EC2 costs based on instance types.
C. Use graphs from the AWS Billing and Cost Management dashboard to compare EC2 costs based on instance types for the last 2 months.
D. Use AWS Cost and Usage Reports to create a report and send it to an Amazon S3 bucket. Use Amazon QuickSight with Amazon S3 as a source to generate an interactive graph based on instance types.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: B

Cost Explorer's granular filtering feature allows detailed analysis of EC2 costs segmented by instance type, with the ability to compare time periods and identify trends. It provides an interactive interface specifically designed for cost analysis and can quickly show which instance types experienced cost increases and when. This is faster and requires less operational overhead than creating custom reports, building visualizations in QuickSight, or using AWS Budgets which is designed for budget monitoring rather than root cause analysis.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. AWS Budgets is designed for tracking spend against budget thresholds, not for in- depth analysis of cost drivers.
C. The Billing and Cost Management dashboard provides basic visualization but lacks the granular filtering and comparative analysis capabilities needed for detailed investigation.
D. Using Cost and Usage Reports with QuickSight requires extracting data to S3, configuring QuickSight, and building visualizations, which involves more operational overhead.

Question 24

A company is designing an application. The application uses an AWS Lambda function to receive information through Amazon API Gateway and to store the information in an Amazon Aurora PostgreSQL database. During the proof-of-concept stage, the company has to increase the Lambda quotas significantly to handle the high volumes of data that the company needs to load into the database. A solutions architect must recommend a new design to improve scalability and minimize the configuration effort. Which solution will meet these requirements?

A. Refactor the Lambda function code to Apache Tomcat code that runs on Amazon EC2 instances. Connect the database by using native Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) drivers.
B. Change the platform from Aurora to Amazon DynamoDProvision a DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) cluster. Use the DAX client SDK to point the existing DynamoDB API calls at the DAX cluster.
C. Set up two Lambda functions. Configure one function to receive the information. Configure the other function to load the information into the database. Integrate the Lambda functions by using Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS).
D. Set up two Lambda functions. Configure one function to receive the information. Configure the other function to load the information into the database. Integrate the Lambda functions by using an Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) queue.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: D

Using SQS as a message queue between two Lambda functions decouples the receive and database load operations, allowing each to scale independently. The first function receives API requests and places them in the queue, while the second function processes them asynchronously. This eliminates the need to increase Lambda quotas significantly and naturally handles traffic spikes by queuing messages. SQS provides built-in retry logic and durability, making it ideal for this scenario.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. Refactoring to EC2 with Tomcat increases operational overhead and doesn't improve scalability compared to the proposed queue-based solution.
B. Switching to DynamoDB fundamentally changes the application's architecture and doesn't solve the underlying scalability issue of the single Lambda function bottleneck.
C. SNS is designed for broadcasting notifications to multiple subscribers rather than queuing work for sequential processing; it doesn't provide the same decoupling and backpressure handling as SQS.

Question 25

A company needs to review its AWS Cloud deployment to ensure that its Amazon S3 buckets do not have unauthorized configuration changes. What should a solutions architect do to accomplish this goal?

A. Turn on AWS Config with the appropriate rules.
B. Turn on AWS Trusted Advisor with the appropriate checks.
C. Turn on Amazon Inspector with the appropriate assessment template.
D. Turn on Amazon S3 server access logging. Configure Amazon EventBridge (Amazon Cloud Watch Events).

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: A

AWS Config is specifically designed to monitor and record AWS resource configurations and compliance. It can detect unauthorized configuration changes to S3 buckets through predefined managed rules and custom rules. AWS Config continuously evaluates configurations against desired settings and sends notifications when changes occur, making it the ideal solution for ensuring S3 bucket configuration governance.

Why the other options are wrong:

B. Trusted Advisor provides best practice recommendations but doesn't continuously monitor for unauthorized configuration changes in real-time.
C. Amazon Inspector is focused on vulnerability assessment of EC2 instances and applications, not configuration compliance monitoring.
D. S3 server access logging records access patterns but doesn't detect or prevent unauthorized configuration changes to buckets themselves.

Question 26

A company is launching a new application and will display application metrics on an Amazon CloudWatch dashboard. The company's product manager needs to access this dashboard periodically. The product manager does not have an AWS account. A solutions architect must provide access to the product manager by following the principle of least privilege. Which solution will meet these requirements?

A. Share the dashboard from the CloudWatch console. Enter the product manager's email address, and complete the sharing steps. Provide a shareable link for the dashboard to the product manager.
B. Create an IAM user specifically for the product manager. Attach the CloudWatchReadOnlyAccess AWS managed policy to the user. Share the new login credentials with the product manager. Share the browser URL of the correct dashboard with the product manager.
C. Create an IAM user for the company's employees. Attach the ViewOnlyAccess AWS managed policy to the IAM user. Share the new login credentials with the product manager. Ask the product manager to navigate to the CloudWatch console and locate the dashboard by name in the Dashboards section.
D. Deploy a bastion server in a public subnet. When the product manager requires access to the dashboard, start the server and share the RDP credentials. On the bastion server, ensure that the browser is configured to open the dashboard URL with cached AWS credentials that have appropriate permissions to view the dashboard.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: A

CloudWatch supports native dashboard sharing functionality that allows you to generate shareable links without requiring the recipient to have an AWS account. This is the most direct implementation of least privilege since the product manager gains access only to the specific dashboard without any IAM permissions or AWS account credentials. The shareable link can be configured with appropriate expiration and read-only access.

Why the other options are wrong:

B. Creating an IAM user and sharing credentials violates the principle of least privilege and creates unnecessary management overhead for a user who only needs read access to one dashboard.
C. Using a shared IAM user for multiple employees is not a least-privilege approach and creates potential security and accountability issues.
D. Deploying a bastion server with cached credentials is unnecessarily complex and introduces additional security risks and operational overhead.

Question 27

A company is migrating applications to AWS. The applications are deployed in different accounts. The company manages the accounts centrally by using AWS Organizations. The company's security team needs a single sign-on (SSO) solution across all the company's accounts. The company must continue managing the users and groups in its on-premises self-managed Microsoft Active Directory. Which solution will meet these requirements?

A. Enable AWS Single Sign-On (AWS SSO) from the AWS SSO console. Create a one-way forest trust or a one-way domain trust to connect the company's self- managed Microsoft Active Directory with AWS SSO by using AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory.
B. Enable AWS Single Sign-On (AWS SSO) from the AWS SSO console. Create a two-way forest trust to connect the company's self-managed Microsoft Active Directory with AWS SSO by using AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory.
C. Use AWS Directory Service. Create a two-way trust relationship with the company's self-managed Microsoft Active Directory.
D. Deploy an identity provider (IdP) on premises. Enable AWS Single Sign-On (AWS SSO) from the AWS SSO console.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: A

Enable AWS Single Sign-On (AWS SSO) from the AWS SSO console. Create a one-way forest trust or a one-way domain trust to connect the company's self-managed Microsoft Active Directory with AWS SSO by using AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory. To integrate AWS SSO with an on-premises self-managed Microsoft Active Directory while continuing to manage users and groups there, AWS recommends establishing a one-way forest trust or one-way domain trust using AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory. This allows AWS SSO to authenticate against the on-premises AD without requiring two-way trust. One-way trust is sufficient because AWS resources only need to validate credentials from the on-premises directory.

Why the other options are wrong:

B. A two-way forest trust is not necessary; AWS SSO only needs to read and validate against the on-premises AD, which a one-way trust provides.
C. Creating a trust relationship directly without AWS SSO doesn't provide the centralized SSO solution needed across multiple AWS accounts.
D. Deploying an on-premises IdP separately doesn't leverage AWS SSO's native integration with AWS Organizations and doesn't simplify the solution.

Question 28

A company provides a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service that uses UDP connections. The service consists of Amazon EC2 instances that run in an Auto Scaling group. The company has deployments across multiple AWS Regions. The company needs to route users to the Region with the lowest latency. The company also needs automated failover between Regions. Which solution will meet these requirements?

A. Deploy a Network Load Balancer (NLB) and an associated target group. Associate the target group with the Auto Scaling group. Use the NLB as an AWS Global Accelerator endpoint in each Region.
B. Deploy an Application Load Balancer (ALB) and an associated target group. Associate the target group with the Auto Scaling group. Use the ALB as an AWS Global Accelerator endpoint in each Region.
C. Deploy a Network Load Balancer (NLB) and an associated target group. Associate the target group with the Auto Scaling group. Create an Amazon Route 53 latency record that points to aliases for each NLB. Create an Amazon CloudFront distribution that uses the latency record as an origin.
D. Deploy an Application Load Balancer (ALB) and an associated target group. Associate the target group with the Auto Scaling group. Create an Amazon Route 53 weighted record that points to aliases for each ALB. Deploy an Amazon CloudFront distribution that uses the weighted record as an origin.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: A

For UDP-based VoIP services requiring lowest-latency routing across multiple regions with automated failover, AWS Global Accelerator combined with Network Load Balancers (NLBs) is the correct solution. NLBs support UDP and deliver ultra-high performance, while Global Accelerator provides intelligent routing to the lowest-latency endpoint and automatic failover between regions. Global Accelerator uses anycast IPs to route traffic optimally.

Why the other options are wrong:

B. Application Load Balancers do not support UDP protocol, making them unsuitable for VoIP services that rely on UDP connections.
C. Route 53 latency routing with CloudFront is not appropriate because CloudFront is designed for content delivery of static or cacheable content, not for real-time UDP connections.
D. ALBs don't support UDP, and weighted routing with CloudFront doesn't provide the automatic failover and latency-based intelligence that Global Accelerator offers for real- time applications.

Question 29

A development team runs monthly resource-intensive tests on its general purpose Amazon RDS for MySQL DB instance with Performance Insights enabled. The testing lasts for 48 hours once a month and is the only process that uses the database. The team wants to reduce the cost of running the tests without reducing the compute and memory attributes of the DB instance. Which solution meets these requirements MOST cost-effectively?

A. Stop the DB instance when tests are completed. Restart the DB instance when required.
B. Use an Auto Scaling policy with the DB instance to automatically scale when tests are completed.
C. Create a snapshot when tests are completed. Terminate the DB instance and restore the snapshot when required.
D. Modify the DB instance to a low-capacity instance when tests are completed. Modify the DB instance again when required.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: C

Creating a snapshot and terminating the DB instance between test cycles is the most cost- effective approach. During the 26 days when testing isn't occurring, you pay nothing for the terminated instance. When testing resumes, you restore from the snapshot, which recreates the instance with the same compute and memory specifications. This approach eliminates monthly compute and storage charges during non-testing periods while preserving the database state and configuration.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. Stopping the DB instance still incurs storage charges for the EBS volumes, making it more expensive than terminating and recreating from a snapshot.
B. Auto Scaling policies don't reduce costs for a database instance; they scale capacity up or down, but you still pay for whatever capacity is provisioned.
D. Modifying the instance to a lower capacity temporarily requires additional downtime and doesn't provide the same cost savings as complete termination.

Question 30

A company that hosts its web application on AWS wants to ensure all Amazon EC2 instances. Amazon RDS DB instances. and Amazon Redshift clusters are configured with tags. The company wants to minimize the effort of configuring and operating this check. What should a solutions architect do to accomplish this?

A. Use AWS Config rules to define and detect resources that are not properly tagged.
B. Use Cost Explorer to display resources that are not properly tagged. Tag those resources manually.
C. Write API calls to check all resources for proper tag allocation. Periodically run the code on an EC2 instance.
D. Write API calls to check all resources for proper tag allocation. Schedule an AWS Lambda function through Amazon CloudWatch to periodically run the code.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: A

AWS Config with appropriate rules is the minimal-effort solution for ensuring resources are properly tagged. AWS Config provides managed rules specifically for checking tag compliance on EC2 instances, RDS DB instances, and other resources. It automatically evaluates all resources, identifies non-compliant ones, and can trigger remediation actions, requiring minimal configuration and operational effort.

Why the other options are wrong:

B. Cost Explorer displays tagged and untagged resources but requires manual tagging, which doesn't scale and increases operational effort.
C. Writing custom API code requires development effort, testing, and ongoing maintenance, which is less efficient than using AWS Config.
D. While Lambda automation is possible, it requires writing and maintaining custom code, whereas AWS Config provides this functionality out of the box.

Question 31

A development team needs to host a website that will be accessed by other teams. The website contents consist of HTML, CSS, client-side JavaScript, and images. Which method is the MOST cost-effective for hosting the website?

A. Containerize the website and host it in AWS Fargate.
B. Create an Amazon S3 bucket and host the website there.
C. Deploy a web server on an Amazon EC2 instance to host the website.
D. Configure an Application Load Balancer with an AWS Lambda target that uses the Express.js framework.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: B

Amazon S3 is the most cost-effective solution for hosting a static website consisting only of HTML, CSS, client-side JavaScript, and images. S3 offers static website hosting with minimal operational overhead, extremely low costs, automatic scalability, and built-in security features. No server compute resources are needed since all content is client-side or static.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. AWS Fargate containerizes applications unnecessarily for static content, incurring container orchestration and compute costs that S3 doesn't require.
C. EC2 instances require ongoing management, patching, and compute costs that far exceed the minimal cost of S3 for static content hosting.
D. ALB with Lambda functions adds unnecessary complexity and cost for serving static files; this approach is suitable only when backend processing is required.

Question 32

A company runs an online marketplace web application on AWS. The application serves hundreds of thousands of users during peak hours. The company needs a scalable, near-real-time solution to share the details of millions of financial transactions with several other internal applications. Transactions also need to be processed to remove sensitive data before being stored in a document database for low-latency retrieval. What should a solutions architect recommend to meet these requirements?

A. Store the transactions data into Amazon DynamoDB. Set up a rule in DynamoDB to remove sensitive data from every transaction upon write. Use DynamoDB Streams to share the transactions data with other applications.
B. Stream the transactions data into Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose to store data in Amazon DynamoDB and Amazon S3. Use AWS Lambda integration with Kinesis Data Firehose to remove sensitive data. Other applications can consume the data stored in Amazon S3.
C. Stream the transactions data into Amazon Kinesis Data Streams. Use AWS Lambda integration to remove sensitive data from every transaction and then store the transactions data in Amazon DynamoDB. Other applications can consume the transactions data off the Kinesis data stream.
D. Store the batched transactions data in Amazon S3 as files. Use AWS Lambda to process every file and remove sensitive data before updating the files in Amazon S3. The Lambda function then stores the data in Amazon DynamoDB. Other applications can consume transaction files stored in Amazon S3.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: C

Kinesis Data Streams provides near-real-time ingestion of millions of transactions, AWS Lambda integration allows processing to remove sensitive data before storage, and other applications can consume data directly from the stream. This meets all requirements: scalability, near-real-time processing, data sanitization, and multi-consumer support.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. DynamoDB does not have native rules to remove sensitive data on write, and DynamoDB Streams are not designed for external application consumption at scale.
B. Kinesis Data Firehose is batch-oriented and not designed for near-real-time sharing; it's better for periodic delivery rather than continuous stream consumption.
D. Batch processing with S3 files introduces significant latency and does not meet near- real-time requirements; it also requires managing Lambda trigger logic for file processing.

Question 33

A company hosts its multi-tier applications on AWS. For compliance, governance, auditing, and security, the company must track configuration changes on its AWS resources and record a history of API calls made to these resources. What should a solutions architect do to meet these requirements?

A. Use AWS CloudTrail to track configuration changes and AWS Config to record API calls.
B. Use AWS Config to track configuration changes and AWS CloudTrail to record API calls.
C. Use AWS Config to track configuration changes and Amazon CloudWatch to record API calls.
D. Use AWS CloudTrail to track configuration changes and Amazon CloudWatch to record API calls.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: B

AWS Config tracks configuration changes to AWS resources over time, while AWS CloudTrail records all API calls made to those resources. This combination provides comprehensive compliance, governance, and auditing capabilities as required.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. This reverses the correct services; CloudTrail is for API logging, not configuration tracking.
C. CloudWatch is for monitoring and metrics, not for API call recording; AWS Config is correct for tracking configuration changes.
D. CloudWatch does not record API calls; CloudTrail is the correct service for that purpose.

Question 34

A company is preparing to launch a public-facing web application in the AWS Cloud. The architecture consists of Amazon EC2 instances within a VPC behind an Elastic Load Balancer (ELB). A third-party service is used for the DNS. The company's solutions architect must recommend a solution to detect and protect against large-scale DDoS attacks. Which solution meets these requirements?

A. Enable Amazon GuardDuty on the account.
B. Enable Amazon Inspector on the EC2 instances.
C. Enable AWS Shield and assign Amazon Route 53 to it.
D. Enable AWS Shield Advanced and assign the ELB to it.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: D

AWS Shield Advanced provides comprehensive DDoS protection for large-scale attacks and integrates directly with ELB, which is the entry point for the public-facing application. This ensures protection at the network edge where DDoS attacks are most effectively mitigated.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. GuardDuty detects intrusions and malicious activity but does not protect against DDoS attacks.
B. Inspector performs vulnerability assessments on EC2 instances but does not provide DDoS protection.
C. While AWS Shield provides DDoS protection, assigning it to Route 53 (a third-party DNS service is used) is not the correct implementation; protection should be at the ELB layer.

Question 35

A company is building an application in the AWS Cloud. The application will store data in Amazon S3 buckets in two AWS Regions. The company must use an AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS) customer managed key to encrypt all data that is stored in the S3 buckets. The data in both S3 buckets must be encrypted and decrypted with the same KMS key. The data and the key must be stored in each of the two Regions. Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?

A. Create an S3 bucket in each Region. Configure the S3 buckets to use server-side encryption with Amazon S3 managed encryption keys (SSE-S3). Configure replication between the S3 buckets.
B. Create a customer managed multi-Region KMS key. Create an S3 bucket in each Region. Configure replication between the S3 buckets. Configure the application to use the KMS key with client-side encryption.
C. Create a customer managed KMS key and an S3 bucket in each Region. Configure the S3 buckets to use server-side encryption with Amazon S3 managed encryption keys (SSE-S3). Configure replication between the S3 buckets.
D. Create a customer managed KMS key and an S3 bucket in each Region. Configure the S3 buckets to use server-side encryption with AWS KMS keys (SSE- KMS). Configure replication between the S3 buckets.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: B

A customer-managed multi-Region KMS key automatically replicates across regions and maintains the same key material in each region, eliminating the need to manage separate keys per region. Combined with client-side encryption and S3 replication, this provides the least operational overhead while meeting all requirements.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. SSE-S3 uses AWS-managed keys, not customer-managed KMS keys as required.
C. Uses SSE-S3 which does not meet the requirement for customer-managed KMS keys, and requires managing separate KMS keys in each region.
D. Requires managing separate customer-managed KMS keys in each region, increasing operational overhead compared to multi-Region keys; replication also requires key policy configuration in each region.

Question 36

A company recently launched a variety of new workloads on Amazon EC2 instances in its AWS account. The company needs to create a strategy to access and administer the instances remotely and securely. The company needs to implement a repeatable process that works with native AWS services and follows the AWS Well-Architected Framework. Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?

A. Use the EC2 serial console to directly access the terminal interface of each instance for administration.
B. Attach the appropriate IAM role to each existing instance and new instance. Use AWS Systems Manager Session Manager to establish a remote SSH session.
C. Create an administrative SSH key pair. Load the public key into each EC2 instance. Deploy a bastion host in a public subnet to provide a tunnel for administration of each instance.
D. Establish an AWS Site-to-Site VPN connection. Instruct administrators to use their local on-premises machines to connect directly to the instances by using SSH keys across the VPN tunnel.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: B

Session Manager from AWS Systems Manager provides secure, agentless remote access using IAM authentication without requiring SSH keys, bastion hosts, or VPN infrastructure. It integrates natively with AWS, is highly scalable across instances, and aligns with the AWS Well-Architected Framework with minimal operational overhead.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. The EC2 serial console is for debugging boot issues, not for regular administration.
C. Bastion hosts add complexity and operational overhead; managing SSH keys introduces security risks and is not a scalable native AWS solution.
D. Site-to-Site VPN requires infrastructure setup and is more operationally complex than Session Manager; it also requires SSH key management.

Question 37

A company is hosting a static website on Amazon S3 and is using Amazon Route 53 for DNS. The website is experiencing increased demand from around the world. The company must decrease latency for users who access the website. Which solution meets these requirements MOST cost-effectively?

A. Replicate the S3 bucket that contains the website to all AWS Regions. Add Route 53 geolocation routing entries.
B. Provision accelerators in AWS Global Accelerator. Associate the supplied IP addresses with the S3 bucket. Edit the Route 53 entries to point to the IP addresses of the accelerators.
C. Add an Amazon CloudFront distribution in front of the S3 bucket. Edit the Route 53 entries to point to the CloudFront distribution.
D. Enable S3 Transfer Acceleration on the bucket. Edit the Route 53 entries to point to the new endpoint.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: C

CloudFront is a content delivery network that caches static website content at edge locations worldwide, significantly reducing latency for global users. It is the most cost- effective solution as it leverages AWS's global infrastructure without requiring bucket replication or additional infrastructure.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. Replicating buckets to all regions is expensive and operationally complex; geolocation routing adds latency compared to edge caching.
B. Global Accelerator is designed for non-HTTP protocols and dynamic content, making it more expensive than CloudFront for static website delivery.
D. S3 Transfer Acceleration is for uploads to S3, not for distributing content to end users; it does not reduce latency for website visitors.

Question 38

A company maintains a searchable repository of items on its website. The data is stored in an Amazon RDS for MySQL database table that contains more than 10 million rows. The database has 2 TB of General Purpose SSD storage. There are millions of updates against this data every day through the company's website. The company has noticed that some insert operations are taking 10 seconds or longer. The company has determined that the database storage performance is the problem. Which solution addresses this performance issue?

A. Change the storage type to Provisioned IOPS SSD.
B. Change the DB instance to a memory optimized instance class.
C. Change the DB instance to a burstable performance instance class.
D. Enable Multi-AZ RDS read replicas with MySQL native asynchronous replication.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: A

The problem is explicitly identified as storage performance with General Purpose SSD at 2 TB capacity. Provisioned IOPS SSD directly addresses storage I/O performance limitations and allows tuning IOPS independently of storage capacity, which resolves the 10+ second insert latency.

Why the other options are wrong:

B. Memory optimization helps with caching and query performance, not storage I/O bottlenecks causing slow inserts.
C. Burstable instances are cost-conscious but do not provide sustained performance improvement for a high-volume workload.
D. Read replicas help with read queries but do not improve write performance, which is the stated issue.

Question 39

A company has thousands of edge devices that collectively generate 1 TB of status alerts each day. Each alert is approximately 2 KB in size. A solutions architect needs to implement a solution to ingest and store the alerts for future analysis. The company wants a highly available solution. However, the company needs to minimize costs and does not want to manage additional infrastructure. Additionally, the company wants to keep 14 days of data available for immediate analysis and archive any data older than 14 days. What is the MOST operationally efficient solution that meets these requirements?

A. Create an Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose delivery stream to ingest the alerts. Configure the Kinesis Data Firehose stream to deliver the alerts to an Amazon S3 bucket. Set up an S3 Lifecycle configuration to transition data to Amazon S3 Glacier after 14 days.
B. Launch Amazon EC2 instances across two Availability Zones and place them behind an Elastic Load Balancer to ingest the alerts. Create a script on the EC2 instances that will store the alerts in an Amazon S3 bucket. Set up an S3 Lifecycle configuration to transition data to Amazon S3 Glacier after 14 days.
C. Create an Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose delivery stream to ingest the alerts. Configure the Kinesis Data Firehose stream to deliver the alerts to an Amazon OpenSearch Service (Amazon Elasticsearch Service) cluster. Set up the Amazon OpenSearch Service (Amazon Elasticsearch Service) cluster to take manual snapshots every day and delete data from the cluster that is older than 14 days.
D. Create an Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) standard queue to ingest the alerts, and set the message retention period to 14 days. Configure consumers to poll the SQS queue, check the age of the message, and analyze the message data as needed. If the message is 14 days old, the consumer should copy the message to an Amazon S3 bucket and delete the message from the SQS queue.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: A

Kinesis Data Firehose automatically ingests alerts at scale with high availability, delivers to S3 for storage, and requires no infrastructure management. S3 Lifecycle policies automatically transition data older than 14 days to Glacier for archival, meeting all cost and operational efficiency requirements without manual intervention.

Why the other options are wrong:

B. EC2 instances require management, patching, and scaling logic; this adds significant operational overhead and complexity.
C. OpenSearch clusters require manual snapshot management and cluster tuning; this is more operationally complex and expensive than automated S3 lifecycle policies.
D. SQS is not designed for long-term data storage; consumers must actively manage message age and perform manual archival, adding operational complexity and latency.

Question 40

A company's application integrates with multiple software-as-a-service (SaaS) sources for data collection. The company runs Amazon EC2 instances to receive the data and to upload the data to an Amazon S3 bucket for analysis. The same EC2 instance that receives and uploads the data also sends a notification to the user when an upload is complete. The company has noticed slow application performance and wants to improve the performance as much as possible. Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?

A. Create an Auto Scaling group so that EC2 instances can scale out. Configure an S3 event notification to send events to an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic when the upload to the S3 bucket is complete.
B. Create an Amazon AppFlow flow to transfer data between each SaaS source and the S3 bucket. Configure an S3 event notification to send events to an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic when the upload to the S3 bucket is complete.
C. Create an Amazon EventBridge (Amazon CloudWatch Events) rule for each SaaS source to send output data. Configure the S3 bucket as the rule's target. Create a second EventBridge (Cloud Watch Events) rule to send events when the upload to the S3 bucket is complete. Configure an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic as the second rule's target.
D. Create a Docker container to use instead of an EC2 instance. Host the containerized application on Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS). Configure Amazon CloudWatch Container Insights to send events to an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic when the upload to the S3 bucket is complete.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: B

AppFlow is a fully managed service that eliminates the need to manage EC2 instances for data transfer between SaaS sources and S3, directly addressing the performance bottleneck with minimal operational overhead. Combined with S3 event notifications to SNS for user alerts, this solution removes the burden of data ingestion from EC2 while automating the notification workflow, requiring no infrastructure management.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. Auto Scaling only addresses capacity but doesn't eliminate the core performance issue of EC2 instances handling data ingestion; it still requires operational management.
C. EventBridge can route data but is designed for event-driven workflows rather than continuous data transfer from SaaS sources, making it less suitable for this use case.
D. Using ECS with containers still requires managing compute infrastructure and doesn't leverage purpose-built SaaS integration services like AppFlow.

Question 41

A company runs a highly available image-processing application on Amazon EC2 instances in a single VPC. The EC2 instances run inside several subnets across multiple Availability Zones. The EC2 instances do not communicate with each other. However, the EC2 instances download images from Amazon S3 and upload images to Amazon S3 through a single NAT gateway. The company is concerned about data transfer charges. What is the MOST cost-effective way for the company to avoid Regional data transfer charges?

A. Launch the NAT gateway in each Availability Zone.
B. Replace the NAT gateway with a NAT instance.
C. Deploy a gateway VPC endpoint for Amazon S3.
D. Provision an EC2 Dedicated Host to run the EC2 instances.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: C

A gateway VPC endpoint for S3 allows EC2 instances to access S3 through a private connection within AWS without traversing the internet or NAT gateway, eliminating Regional data transfer charges entirely. This is the most cost-effective solution as VPC endpoints incur no data transfer fees for S3 communication.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. Multiple NAT gateways per AZ still incur Regional data transfer charges and increase costs rather than reducing them.
B. NAT instances also incur Regional data transfer charges and require more operational overhead than a gateway endpoint.
D. Dedicated Hosts don't reduce data transfer charges and are more expensive than standard instances.

Question 42

A company has an on-premises application that generates a large amount of time- sensitive data that is backed up to Amazon S3. The application has grown and there are user complaints about internet bandwidth limitations. A solutions architect needs to design a long-term solution that allows for both timely backups to Amazon S3 and with minimal impact on internet connectivity for internal users. Which solution meets these requirements?

A. Establish AWS VPN connections and proxy all traffic through a VPC gateway endpoint.
B. Establish a new AWS Direct Connect connection and direct backup traffic through this new connection.
C. Order daily AWS Snowball devices. Load the data onto the Snowball devices and return the devices to AWS each day.
D. Submit a support ticket through the AWS Management Console. Request the removal of S3 service limits from the account.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: B

AWS Direct Connect provides a dedicated network connection with consistent, high bandwidth for backup traffic, bypassing internet limitations without impacting user connectivity. This is a long-term solution that solves both the bandwidth constraint and the timing issue for time-sensitive backups.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. VPN connections still use internet bandwidth and don't resolve the underlying connectivity limitations for large backups.
C. Snowball is a data migration service, not ideal for continuous, time-sensitive backup operations that require daily device returns.
D. AWS doesn't remove service limits through support tickets; S3 is designed to handle high throughput without artificial limits being the constraint here.

Question 43

A company has an application that provides marketing services to stores. The services are based on previous purchases by store customers. The stores upload transaction data to the company through SFTP, and the data is processed and analyzed to generate new marketing offers. Some of the files can exceed 200 GB in size. Recently, the company discovered that some of the stores have uploaded files that contain personally identifiable information (PII) that should not have been included. The company wants administrators to be alerted if PII is shared again. The company also wants to automate remediation. What should a solutions architect do to meet these requirements with the LEAST development effort?

A. Use an Amazon S3 bucket as a secure transfer point. Use Amazon Inspector to scan the objects in the bucket. If objects contain PII, trigger an S3 Lifecycle policy to remove the objects that contain PII.
B. Use an Amazon S3 bucket as a secure transfer point. Use Amazon Macie to scan the objects in the bucket. If objects contain PII, use Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) to trigger a notification to the administrators to remove the objects that contain PII.
C. Implement custom scanning algorithms in an AWS Lambda function. Trigger the function when objects are loaded into the bucket. If objects contain PII, use Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) to trigger a notification to the administrators to remove the objects that contain PII.
D. Implement custom scanning algorithms in an AWS Lambda function. Trigger the function when objects are loaded into the bucket. If objects contain PII, use Amazon Simple Email Service (Amazon SES) to trigger a notification to the administrators and trigger an S3 Lifecycle policy to remove the meats that contain PII.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: B

Amazon Macie is a managed service specifically designed to discover and protect sensitive data including PII with minimal development effort. It automatically scans S3 objects, identifies PII, and can trigger SNS notifications for administrator action. This requires no custom code development while meeting both alerting and the intent for remediation.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. Amazon Inspector is designed for EC2 vulnerability scanning, not PII detection in S3 objects.
C. Custom Lambda scanning requires significant development effort to accurately identify all PII types compared to using a managed service.
D. Custom Lambda scanning requires development effort; while SES and S3 Lifecycle could work, this approach lacks the automated PII detection sophistication of Macie.

Question 44

A company needs guaranteed Amazon EC2 capacity in three specific Availability Zones in a specific AWS Region for an upcoming event that will last 1 week. What should the company do to guarantee the EC2 capacity?

A. Purchase Reserved Instances that specify the Region needed.
B. Create an On-Demand Capacity Reservation that specifies the Region needed.
C. Purchase Reserved Instances that specify the Region and three Availability Zones needed.
D. Create an On-Demand Capacity Reservation that specifies the Region and three Availability Zones needed.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: D

On-Demand Capacity Reservations with specific Region and Availability Zone parameters guarantee compute capacity in the exact locations needed for the 1-week event. This is the only option that provides guaranteed capacity with the granularity required, as Reserved Instances don't guarantee capacity, they only provide pricing discounts.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. Reserved Instances at the Region level don't guarantee specific AZ capacity and provide only billing discounts, not capacity guarantees.
B. On-Demand Capacity Reservations without AZ specification don't guarantee the three specific AZs required.
C. Reserved Instances are billing instruments, not capacity guarantees, and don't reserve specific infrastructure.

Question 45

A company's website uses an Amazon EC2 instance store for its catalog of items. The company wants to make sure that the catalog is highly available and that the catalog is stored in a durable location. What should a solutions architect do to meet these requirements?

A. Move the catalog to Amazon ElastiCache for Redis.
B. Deploy a larger EC2 instance with a larger instance store.
C. Move the catalog from the instance store to Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive.
D. Move the catalog to an Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) file system.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: D

Amazon EFS provides a highly available, durable, and managed file system that can be accessed by multiple EC2 instances across Availability Zones, meeting both high availability and durability requirements. Unlike instance stores which are ephemeral and lost when instances terminate, EFS persists independently of instance lifecycle.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. ElastiCache is an in-memory cache designed for performance, not durable persistent storage; data is lost on node failure.
B. Larger instance stores are still ephemeral and lack durability; instance store data is lost when the instance terminates.
C. Glacier Deep Archive is designed for archival with slow retrieval times, not for active catalog access requiring high availability.

Question 46

A company stores call transcript files on a monthly basis. Users access the files randomly within 1 year of the call, but users access the files infrequently after 1 year. The company wants to optimize its solution by giving users the ability to query and retrieve files that are less than 1-year-old as quickly as possible. A delay in retrieving older files is acceptable. Which solution will meet these requirements MOST cost-effectively?

A. Store individual files with tags in Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval. Query the tags to retrieve the files from S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval.
B. Store individual files in Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering. Use S3 Lifecycle policies to move the files to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after 1 year. Query and retrieve the files that are in Amazon S3 by using Amazon Athena. Query and retrieve the files that are in S3 Glacier by using S3 Glacier Select.
C. Store individual files with tags in Amazon S3 Standard storage. Store search metadata for each archive in Amazon S3 Standard storage. Use S3 Lifecycle policies to move the files to S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval after 1 year. Query and retrieve the files by searching for metadata from Amazon S3.
D. Store individual files in Amazon S3 Standard storage. Use S3 Lifecycle policies to move the files to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 1 year. Store search metadata in Amazon RDS. Query the files from Amazon RDS. Retrieve the files from S3 Glacier Deep Archive.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: B

S3 Intelligent-Tiering automatically optimizes storage costs by moving objects between access tiers based on usage patterns, perfectly matching the requirement for frequent access within 1 year and infrequent access afterward. Using S3 Lifecycle policies to move files to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after 1 year provides cost optimization, while Amazon Athena enables efficient querying of S3 objects and S3 Glacier Select enables querying archived data. This solution is more cost-effective than keeping all data in standard storage and provides better query capabilities than tagging-based retrieval.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval is designed for frequent access and does not optimize costs for the 9-year archival period; tag-based querying is less efficient than Athena.
C. S3 Instant Retrieval lacks the automatic tiering optimization of Intelligent-Tiering and is more expensive for the archival use case; metadata-based searching is less efficient than native Athena querying.
D. S3 Glacier Deep Archive has excessive retrieval latency for files accessed within 1 year; RDS adds unnecessary operational overhead for simple metadata storage compared to S3-based solutions.

Question 47

A company has a production workload that runs on 1,000 Amazon EC2 Linux instances. The workload is powered by third-party software. The company needs to patch the third- party software on all EC2 instances as quickly as possible to remediate a critical security vulnerability. What should a solutions architect do to meet these requirements?

A. Create an AWS Lambda function to apply the patch to all EC2 instances.
B. Configure AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager to apply the patch to all EC2 instances.
C. Schedule an AWS Systems Manager maintenance window to apply the patch to all EC2 instances.
D. Use AWS Systems Manager Run Command to run a custom command that applies the patch to all EC2 instances.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: D

AWS Systems Manager Run Command is the most direct and fastest solution for applying patches to a large number of EC2 instances immediately. It allows execution of custom commands across all 1,000 instances concurrently without waiting for scheduled maintenance windows or complex Lambda orchestration. Run Command provides real- time feedback and error handling suitable for critical security vulnerability remediation.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. Lambda requires significant custom orchestration logic and is not designed as a primary patch management tool; it adds unnecessary complexity for this use case.
B. Patch Manager is designed for regular, scheduled patching rather than immediate critical patches and requires predefined patch baselines.
C. Maintenance windows introduce unnecessary delays by scheduling patches for specific times rather than applying them immediately as required for critical vulnerabilities.

Question 48

A company wants to migrate its on-premises application to AWS. The application produces output files that vary in size from tens of gigabytes to hundreds of terabytes. The application data must be stored in a standard file system structure. The company wants a solution that scales automatically. is highly available, and requires minimum operational overhead. Which solution will meet these requirements?

A. Migrate the application to run as containers on Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS). Use Amazon S3 for storage.
B. Migrate the application to run as containers on Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS). Use Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) for storage.
C. Migrate the application to Amazon EC2 instances in a Multi-AZ Auto Scaling group. Use Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) for storage.
D. Migrate the application to Amazon EC2 instances in a Multi-AZ Auto Scaling group. Use Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) for storage.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: C

Amazon EFS provides a standard file system structure (POSIX-compliant), automatically scales to handle terabyte-scale workloads, is highly available across multiple Availability Zones, and requires minimal operational overhead. EC2 instances in a Multi-AZ Auto Scaling group provide the compute layer that automatically scales with demand. EFS is purpose-built for applications requiring shared file system access with standard semantics, unlike S3 which requires API-based access, and unlike EBS which does not provide shared access.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. S3 does not provide a standard file system interface; applications must be refactored to use S3 APIs instead of standard file system calls.
B. EBS volumes cannot be shared across instances; this solution would require complex synchronization logic and does not provide true shared file system access.
D. EBS is block storage, not a shared file system; it cannot be accessed from multiple instances simultaneously, making it unsuitable for the standard file system requirement.

Question 49

A company needs to store its accounting records in Amazon S3. The records must be immediately accessible for 1 year and then must be archived for an additional 9 years. No one at the company, including administrative users and root users, can be able to delete the records during the entire 10-year period. The records must be stored with maximum resiliency. Which solution will meet these requirements?

A. Store the records in S3 Glacier for the entire 10-year period. Use an access control policy to deny deletion of the records for a period of 10 years.
B. Store the records by using S3 Intelligent-Tiering. Use an IAM policy to deny deletion of the records. After 10 years, change the IAM policy to allow deletion.
C. Use an S3 Lifecycle policy to transition the records from S3 Standard to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 1 year. Use S3 Object Lock in compliance mode for a period of 10 years.
D. Use an S3 Lifecycle policy to transition the records from S3 Standard to S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access (S3 One Zone-IA) after 1 year. Use S3 Object Lock in governance mode for a period of 10 years.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: C

S3 Object Lock in compliance mode provides legally enforceable write-once-read-many (WORM) protection that cannot be bypassed by any user, including root, meeting the non- deletable requirement. Using S3 Lifecycle policies to transition from S3 Standard to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 1 year achieves immediate accessibility followed by archival. This combination ensures records are immediately accessible for 1 year, archived for 9 years, and protected from deletion for the full 10-year period with maximum resiliency.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. IAM policies can be changed by root users with sufficient permissions, so they do not provide true non-deletable protection; S3 Glacier lacks the immediate accessibility requirement.
B. S3 Intelligent-Tiering does not provide immediate accessibility for 1 year with archival after; IAM policies can be modified, not providing true compliance protection.
D. S3 One Zone-IA provides only single-AZ resiliency, not maximum resiliency; governance mode allows root users to override retention, failing the compliance requirement.

Question 50

A company runs multiple Windows workloads on AWS. The company's employees use Windows file shares that are hosted on two Amazon EC2 instances. The file shares synchronize data between themselves and maintain duplicate copies. The company wants a highly available and durable storage solution that preserves how users currently access the files. What should a solutions architect do to meet these requirements?

A. Migrate all the data to Amazon S3. Set up IAM authentication for users to access files.
B. Set up an Amazon S3 File Gateway. Mount the S3 File Gateway on the existing EC2 instances.
C. Extend the file share environment to Amazon FSx for Windows File Server with a Multi-AZ configuration. Migrate all the data to FSx for Windows File Server.
D. Extend the file share environment to Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) with a Multi-AZ configuration. Migrate all the data to Amazon EFS.

Show answer and explanation ▾

Correct answer: C

Amazon FSx for Windows File Server is purpose-built for Windows file sharing workloads and preserves how users currently access files through standard SMB protocol. A Multi-AZ configuration provides high availability and durability while maintaining data synchronization. FSx replaces the need for manually-managed EC2 instances running file shares while providing superior reliability, performance, and operational simplicity compared to self-managed solutions.

Why the other options are wrong:

A. S3 does not provide file share semantics; users would need to change how they access files from standard SMB to S3 APIs or use third-party tools.
B. S3 File Gateway adds latency and complexity; it does not preserve native Windows file share access patterns and still requires manual EC2 management.
D. Amazon EFS is for Linux workloads and does not provide Windows file sharing capabilities; it uses NFS protocol, not SMB.

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