Amazon AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate SAA-C03 Exam Dumps and Practice Test Questions Set 10 Q181-200

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Question 181:

A company wants to migrate a large on-premises MySQL database to AWS with minimal downtime and high availability. Which solution is most suitable?

Answer:

A) AWS DMS with Amazon RDS Multi-AZ MySQL
B) EC2 with self-managed MySQL
C) S3 only
D) DynamoDB

Explanation:

Option A is correct. AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) enables continuous replication from an on-premises MySQL database to Amazon RDS, allowing near-zero downtime migration. Amazon RDS Multi-AZ deployment ensures high availability by creating a synchronous standby replica in another Availability Zone, enabling automatic failover in the event of primary database failure.

EC2 with self-managed MySQL requires manual management of replication, backups, patching, and failover, increasing operational complexity and risk. S3 is object storage and cannot host relational databases. DynamoDB is a NoSQL database service, incompatible with MySQL relational workloads.

DMS validates data during migration, supports heterogeneous migrations, and allows ongoing replication to minimize downtime. RDS Multi-AZ automates backups, patching, and failover procedures. CloudWatch provides monitoring for replication lag, CPU, memory, disk usage, and RDS metrics, ensuring performance visibility. CloudTrail logs all API calls and configuration changes for auditing purposes. IAM roles and KMS encryption secure database access and encrypt data at rest, while TLS encrypts data in transit.

Organizations benefit from reduced operational overhead, high availability, fault tolerance, and disaster recovery readiness. The architecture ensures business continuity during migration and aligns with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles for operational excellence, reliability, security, performance efficiency, and cost optimization. This approach minimizes downtime, reduces administrative complexity, and maintains compliance for critical production workloads. It allows IT teams to focus on optimizing applications rather than managing infrastructure, providing a scalable, secure, and resilient migration strategy for relational databases.

Question 182:

A company wants to implement automated compliance monitoring and remediation for IAM policies across multiple AWS accounts. Which approach is recommended?

Answer:

A) AWS Config with AWS Organizations
B) IAM policies only
C) EC2 scripts
D) S3 only

Explanation:

Option A is correct. AWS Config evaluates AWS resources against compliance rules, such as ensuring IAM policies follow least-privilege principles. When integrated with AWS Organizations, these rules can be centrally managed and applied across multiple accounts. Automated remediation actions can be configured to correct non-compliant resources, reducing human error and operational risk.

IAM policies alone cannot enforce compliance or provide automated monitoring. EC2 scripts are manually maintained, requiring operational effort and continuous oversight. S3 cannot manage IAM policy compliance or perform automated remediation.

AWS Config enables organizations to have centralized visibility of compliance status across accounts. Config rules can trigger notifications or Lambda functions to remediate policy violations. CloudWatch provides monitoring of compliance events, and CloudTrail logs all IAM changes and API calls for auditing. IAM roles enforce least-privilege permissions, and KMS ensures sensitive configuration data is encrypted at rest.

This solution improves security governance, reduces risk exposure, and supports continuous compliance. Organizations benefit from automated monitoring, centralized auditing, and proactive remediation, which aligns with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles for operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization. It ensures policies across multiple accounts remain compliant, minimizes administrative effort, and enhances the overall security posture of the enterprise AWS environment.

Option A is the recommended approach for implementing automated compliance monitoring and remediation for IAM policies across multiple AWS accounts. AWS Config enables continuous assessment of AWS resources against defined compliance rules, ensuring that IAM policies adhere to organizational security standards, such as the principle of least privilege. By integrating AWS Config with AWS Organizations, these compliance rules can be centrally defined and enforced across all member accounts, providing a consistent security baseline and reducing the risk of policy violations.

Automated remediation is a key advantage of this architecture. Config rules can trigger predefined actions or invoke AWS Lambda functions to automatically correct non-compliant IAM policies. This reduces human intervention, mitigates the risk of errors, and ensures that all accounts continuously comply with governance requirements. Notifications can be sent through Amazon SNS or other monitoring tools whenever compliance violations occur, enabling security teams to respond promptly and efficiently.

Other options are less suitable for centralized compliance management. IAM policies alone, option B, cannot provide monitoring or automated remediation. EC2 scripts, option C, require manual maintenance, scheduling, and monitoring, which increases operational overhead and the chance of errors. S3, option D, is object storage and cannot enforce IAM policy compliance or automate corrections.

AWS Config also offers a centralized view of compliance status across multiple accounts, helping organizations track compliance trends and generate reports for internal governance or regulatory audits. CloudWatch monitors compliance events and generates metrics for operational insights, while CloudTrail logs all API calls and IAM changes for auditing and security analysis. Encryption of sensitive configuration data with KMS ensures that compliance information is secure, and IAM roles enforce least-privilege access to configuration and remediation tools.

This solution improves security governance, reduces risk exposure, and supports continuous compliance management. It provides operational efficiency by automating monitoring and remediation, and it aligns with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles for operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization. Organizations can maintain consistent IAM policy compliance across multiple accounts, enhance security posture, minimize administrative effort, and ensure that critical workloads remain protected and compliant in a scalable, automated manner.

Question 183:

A company wants to implement a serverless web application that automatically scales and charges only for actual usage. Which AWS services are best suited?

Answer:

A) AWS Lambda, API Gateway, and DynamoDB
B) EC2 instances
C) Elastic Beanstalk with RDS
D) S3 only

Explanation:

Option A is correct. AWS Lambda executes application logic without the need to provision or manage servers, automatically scaling based on incoming traffic and billing only for execution time. API Gateway exposes RESTful endpoints that trigger Lambda functions, enabling serverless request handling. DynamoDB provides a fully managed, scalable NoSQL database that automatically adjusts capacity to handle variable workloads while offering low-latency access.

EC2 instances require manual management, scaling, and patching, increasing operational complexity. Elastic Beanstalk simplifies deployment but relies on underlying EC2 instances, making it partially managed rather than fully serverless. S3 alone cannot host dynamic content and is limited to static website storage.

Serverless architecture supports event-driven processing and integrates seamlessly with other AWS services such as S3, SNS, and Kinesis. CloudWatch monitors Lambda execution, API Gateway requests, and DynamoDB throughput. IAM enforces least-privilege access, and KMS provides encryption for sensitive data.

Organizations benefit from operational simplicity, cost efficiency, and automatic scaling without manual intervention. This approach allows rapid application development and deployment, focusing on business logic rather than infrastructure. It aligns with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles for operational excellence, reliability, security, performance efficiency, and cost optimization. The architecture is highly scalable, fault-tolerant, and suitable for variable workloads, event-driven processing, and global serverless applications.

Question 184:

A company wants to implement a real-time analytics pipeline for IoT data that is highly scalable, fault-tolerant, and low-latency. Which architecture is recommended?

Answer:

A) Amazon Kinesis Data Streams, Lambda, and DynamoDB
B) S3 only
C) EC2 batch processing
D) RDS Multi-AZ

Explanation:

Option A is correct. Amazon Kinesis Data Streams handles real-time streaming data ingestion at high throughput by dividing the stream into shards for parallel processing. Lambda functions are triggered automatically to process events, performing transformations, aggregations, and filtering. Processed data is stored in DynamoDB, which provides low-latency access and automatic scaling.

S3 is designed for batch processing and cannot support real-time streaming data with minimal latency. EC2 batch processing introduces latency and requires manual scaling and operational oversight. RDS Multi-AZ is highly available for relational databases but not optimized for continuous streaming workloads.

Kinesis ensures durability, fault tolerance, and replayability, enabling reprocessing in case of errors. Lambda scales automatically based on event volume and integrates with dead-letter queues for failed events. DynamoDB supports encryption at rest, IAM-based access control, and global tables for multi-region replication.

CloudWatch monitors execution, throughput, and latency metrics, providing visibility into pipeline performance. CloudTrail logs all API calls for auditing and compliance. Step Functions can orchestrate complex workflows with conditional logic, retries, and notifications.

This architecture reduces operational overhead, supports fault tolerance, and provides real-time insights from IoT data streams. It aligns with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles for operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization. Organizations gain a highly scalable, cost-effective, and fully serverless solution for IoT analytics, enabling rapid insights, operational intelligence, and proactive decision-making without managing infrastructure manually.

Option A is the recommended architecture for implementing a real-time analytics pipeline for IoT data that requires high scalability, fault tolerance, and low latency. Amazon Kinesis Data Streams provides a fully managed solution for ingesting high-throughput streaming data from a large number of IoT devices. By dividing the stream into shards, Kinesis enables parallel processing of incoming events, ensuring that even massive amounts of data are ingested without delays or bottlenecks. The service is designed for durability and fault tolerance, replicating data across multiple Availability Zones to prevent data loss. Kinesis also supports replayability, allowing reprocessing of events in the case of downstream errors or processing failures, ensuring that the analytics pipeline is resilient and reliable.

AWS Lambda functions integrate seamlessly with Kinesis Data Streams, automatically triggering when new records arrive. Lambda functions perform transformations, aggregations, filtering, or enrichment of the streaming data. Being serverless, Lambda scales automatically to match the incoming event volume, eliminating the need for manual provisioning or capacity planning. Failed events can be captured in dead-letter queues for later inspection and reprocessing, improving reliability and ensuring that no data is lost during transient issues.

Processed results are stored in Amazon DynamoDB, which provides single-digit millisecond read and write latency and automatic scaling to handle variable workloads. DynamoDB also supports global tables for multi-region replication, encryption at rest using KMS, and IAM-based fine-grained access control. This ensures that processed IoT data is available quickly and securely for analytics, dashboards, or further processing.

Other options are less suitable for real-time IoT analytics. S3, option B, is optimized for batch storage and cannot provide immediate, low-latency insights. EC2 batch processing, option C, introduces processing delays and requires manual scaling and maintenance. RDS Multi-AZ, option D, provides high availability for relational workloads but is not designed for continuous high-throughput streaming.

Operational monitoring is provided by CloudWatch, which tracks throughput, Lambda execution times, and latency metrics. CloudTrail records all API activity, supporting auditing and compliance requirements. AWS Step Functions can orchestrate complex workflows with retries, error handling, and notifications, enabling automated operational processes. This architecture delivers a fully serverless, scalable, fault-tolerant, and cost-effective solution for real-time IoT analytics. It reduces operational overhead, ensures high availability, and allows organizations to gain immediate insights, detect anomalies, and make proactive decisions based on live IoT data streams, aligning with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles for operational excellence, reliability, security, performance efficiency, and cost optimization.

Question 185:

A company wants to provide secure, temporary access to S3 objects for external partners without creating IAM users. Which approach is recommended?

Answer:

A) Pre-signed URLs with CloudTrail logging
B) Public S3 bucket
C) Shared IAM credentials
D) S3 Standard only

Explanation:

Option A is correct. Pre-signed URLs allow temporary, object-specific access to S3 without creating IAM users. Each URL has a defined expiration time and supports fine-grained permissions for GET or PUT operations. CloudTrail logs all access events for auditing and compliance.

Public S3 buckets expose data to the internet, introducing security risks. Shared IAM credentials violate least-privilege principles and complicate auditing. S3 Standard is a storage class and does not enforce access controls or time-limited permissions.

Pre-signed URLs can be generated programmatically using SDKs, Lambda, or API Gateway. They enforce secure, temporary, and object-specific access. Data at rest is encrypted using KMS, and HTTPS ensures encryption in transit. CloudWatch monitors access patterns and anomalies.

This approach reduces operational overhead while providing secure, auditable access to external collaborators. Organizations maintain governance, comply with regulations, and minimize risk exposure. It aligns with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles for operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization, offering a scalable, secure solution for external access to sensitive S3 content.

Question 186:

A company wants to reduce latency for a global web application and ensure protection against web attacks. Which architecture is most appropriate?

Answer:

A) Amazon CloudFront with S3 or EC2 origin, AWS WAF, and AWS Shield
B) Single EC2 instance
C) S3 static website
D) Direct Connect

Explanation:

Option A is correct. Amazon CloudFront is a global Content Delivery Network (CDN) that caches content at edge locations, ensuring that users access content from the nearest geographical location. This reduces latency and enhances application performance. Using S3 as an origin is ideal for static content, whereas EC2 can be used for dynamic content. AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall) protects the application from common attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and other OWASP top 10 vulnerabilities. AWS Shield protects against DDoS attacks, ensuring application availability even during large-scale malicious traffic events.

A single EC2 instance represents a single point of failure and cannot handle high traffic efficiently or provide global performance optimization. S3 static websites are limited to static content delivery and cannot host dynamic workloads. Direct Connect improves network performance to AWS but does not optimize content delivery for global users or provide security protections.

CloudFront supports caching strategies, time-to-live (TTL) configuration, origin failover, and Lambda@Edge for on-the-fly dynamic content modification. CloudWatch provides real-time metrics such as cache hit ratios, latency, and error rates, enabling proactive performance management. CloudTrail logs all configuration changes and API calls, supporting auditing and compliance requirements. IAM policies enforce least-privilege access, and KMS provides encryption for sensitive content.

This architecture improves performance, security, and operational efficiency. It aligns with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles for operational excellence, performance efficiency, security, reliability, and cost optimization. Organizations gain scalable, secure, and globally optimized content delivery while minimizing operational complexity.

Question 187:

A company wants to migrate an on-premises Oracle database to AWS with minimal downtime and high availability. Which solution is best suited?

Answer:

A) AWS DMS with Amazon RDS Multi-AZ
B) EC2 with self-managed Oracle
C) S3 only
D) DynamoDB

Explanation:

Option A is correct. AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) enables continuous replication from an on-premises Oracle database to Amazon RDS, allowing near-zero downtime migration. Amazon RDS Multi-AZ ensures high availability with automatic failover to a synchronous standby instance in another Availability Zone.

EC2 with self-managed Oracle requires manual replication, patching, failover, and monitoring, increasing operational risk. S3 cannot host relational databases. DynamoDB is a NoSQL database, incompatible with Oracle workloads.

DMS provides data validation during migration and supports ongoing replication, minimizing downtime. RDS Multi-AZ automates backups, patching, replication, and failover. CloudWatch monitors CPU, memory, storage, and replication lag. CloudTrail logs all API actions for auditing purposes. IAM and VPC isolation secure access, while KMS encrypts data at rest.

This architecture ensures high availability, fault tolerance, and disaster recovery readiness. It reduces operational complexity, aligns with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles, and supports minimal downtime during critical migrations. Organizations maintain business continuity and ensure secure, compliant, and efficient database operations.

Option A is the best solution for migrating an on-premises Oracle database to AWS with minimal downtime while maintaining high availability. AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) enables continuous replication from the source Oracle database to Amazon RDS, allowing organizations to perform near-zero downtime migrations. This approach ensures that applications remain operational during the migration process, minimizing service interruptions and business impact. DMS supports homogeneous migrations, which simplifies the transfer of data while maintaining consistency, integrity, and compatibility between the source and target databases. Additionally, DMS provides data validation features to verify that all records are accurately replicated, reducing the risk of errors during migration.

Amazon RDS Multi-AZ deployments complement DMS by providing high availability and fault tolerance for the database layer. Multi-AZ configurations replicate data synchronously to a standby instance in another Availability Zone, ensuring automatic failover if the primary instance fails. RDS handles routine database management tasks such as automated backups, patching, replication, and failover, reducing operational overhead and allowing teams to focus on application functionality rather than infrastructure management. The combination of DMS and RDS Multi-AZ ensures that database workloads are resilient, highly available, and scalable.

Other options are less suitable for this scenario. Running Oracle on EC2, option B, requires manual configuration for replication, patching, and failover, increasing complexity and operational risk. S3, option C, is object storage and cannot host relational databases. DynamoDB, option D, is a NoSQL database and incompatible with Oracle workloads, making it unsuitable for migration where relational features and ACID compliance are required.

Monitoring and security are integral to this architecture. CloudWatch tracks CPU utilization, memory usage, storage, and replication lag, providing operational visibility. CloudTrail logs all API calls for auditing and compliance purposes. IAM roles, VPC isolation, and KMS encryption secure access to sensitive data both in transit and at rest. This architecture provides a robust, highly available, and fault-tolerant solution for Oracle database migration. It aligns with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles for operational excellence, reliability, security, performance efficiency, and cost optimization, ensuring business continuity and secure, efficient database operations throughout the migration process.

Question 188:

A company wants to implement automated backups and retention policies for EBS volumes while replicating them across regions for disaster recovery. Which approach is recommended?

Answer:

A) Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) with cross-region snapshot copy
B) Manual snapshots
C) EC2 scripts
D) S3 Standard

Explanation:

Option A is correct. Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) automates the creation, retention, and deletion of EBS snapshots based on policy definitions. Cross-region snapshot copies ensure backups are stored in another AWS region, supporting disaster recovery, compliance, and business continuity.

Manual snapshots require human intervention, increasing operational overhead and the risk of missed backups. EC2 scripts demand ongoing maintenance and scheduling, which introduces complexity. S3 is object storage and cannot manage EBS snapshots or lifecycle policies.

DLM supports incremental snapshots, reducing storage costs and improving performance. Policies define schedules, retention periods, and cross-region replication rules. CloudWatch monitors snapshot creation and replication status. CloudTrail logs actions for auditing and compliance. KMS encryption secures snapshots at rest, and IAM policies enforce proper access control.

This architecture ensures reliable, automated, and cost-effective backup management. Organizations can recover EBS volumes quickly during failures, maintaining business continuity. It aligns with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles for operational excellence, reliability, security, and cost optimization, providing a scalable and fault-tolerant EBS backup and disaster recovery strategy.

Question 189:

A company wants to implement a serverless web application that scales automatically and charges only for actual compute usage. Which services are most appropriate?

Answer:

A) AWS Lambda, API Gateway, and DynamoDB
B) EC2 instances
C) Elastic Beanstalk with RDS
D) S3 only

Explanation:

Option A is correct. AWS Lambda provides serverless compute that executes application logic without managing servers, automatically scaling to meet demand and charging only for execution time. API Gateway exposes RESTful endpoints and triggers Lambda functions, enabling serverless request handling. DynamoDB offers a fully managed NoSQL database with automatic scaling and low-latency access.

EC2 instances require manual scaling, patching, and operational management. Elastic Beanstalk simplifies deployment but still relies on EC2, making it partially managed rather than fully serverless. S3 cannot host dynamic content and is limited to static website hosting.

This architecture supports event-driven workflows and integrates with services such as S3, SNS, and Kinesis. CloudWatch monitors Lambda execution, API Gateway requests, and DynamoDB throughput. IAM enforces least-privilege access, and KMS encrypts sensitive data.

Organizations benefit from operational simplicity, cost efficiency, and automatic scaling. The architecture allows rapid application deployment, aligning with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles for operational excellence, reliability, security, performance efficiency, and cost optimization. It is highly scalable, fault-tolerant, and ideal for variable workloads and global serverless applications.

Option A is the most suitable architecture for implementing a serverless web application that scales automatically and charges only for actual compute usage. AWS Lambda provides a fully serverless compute environment that executes application logic in response to events without requiring any server provisioning, patching, or management. Lambda functions automatically scale based on incoming request volume, ensuring that the application can handle sudden spikes in traffic without manual intervention. Billing is based solely on execution time and memory consumption, offering a cost-efficient solution for applications with variable workloads.

API Gateway complements Lambda by providing RESTful endpoints to expose application functionality. It acts as the interface for HTTP requests, routing them to the appropriate Lambda functions. API Gateway supports throttling, caching, and authorization mechanisms, allowing secure, efficient, and reliable request handling. Together, Lambda and API Gateway enable a fully serverless, event-driven architecture that can respond in real time to user interactions or other triggers.

DynamoDB serves as the backend database, offering a fully managed NoSQL solution that scales automatically to accommodate application demand. It provides low-latency reads and writes, supports global tables for multi-region replication, and encrypts data at rest using KMS. DynamoDB is highly available and fault-tolerant, ensuring that the application data remains consistent and accessible even during disruptions.

Other options are less suitable. EC2 instances, option B, require manual provisioning, scaling, patching, and operational maintenance, which increases administrative overhead and cost. Elastic Beanstalk with RDS, option C, provides some automation but still relies on EC2 instances, making it partially managed rather than fully serverless. S3, option D, is limited to static content and cannot execute dynamic application logic or process real-time requests.

This architecture supports integration with other AWS services such as S3 for storage, SNS for messaging, or Kinesis for streaming events. CloudWatch provides comprehensive monitoring of Lambda execution duration, error rates, and API Gateway request metrics. IAM policies enforce least-privilege access to resources, and KMS ensures sensitive data is encrypted both at rest and in transit. By leveraging Lambda, API Gateway, and DynamoDB, organizations achieve operational simplicity, automatic scaling, cost efficiency, and high availability. This approach aligns with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles for operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization, enabling rapid deployment and maintenance of serverless applications without manual infrastructure management.

Question 190:

A company wants to implement a real-time analytics pipeline for IoT data that is highly scalable, fault-tolerant, and low-latency. Which architecture is recommended?

Answer:

A) Amazon Kinesis Data Streams, Lambda, and DynamoDB
B) S3 only
C) EC2 batch processing
D) RDS Multi-AZ

Explanation:

Option A is correct. Amazon Kinesis Data Streams ingests high-volume IoT data in real-time, dividing the stream into shards for parallel processing. Lambda functions automatically process events, performing transformation, aggregation, and filtering. DynamoDB stores processed results, offering low-latency retrieval and automatic scaling.

S3 is optimized for batch analytics and cannot support continuous real-time streaming data. EC2 batch processing introduces latency and requires manual scaling. RDS Multi-AZ is highly available for relational databases but not suitable for continuous streaming data.

Kinesis ensures durability, fault tolerance, and replay capabilities for reprocessing events. Lambda scales automatically, integrating with dead-letter queues for error handling. DynamoDB supports encryption at rest, IAM-based access control, and global tables for multi-region replication.

CloudWatch monitors execution metrics, throughput, and latency, while CloudTrail logs API calls for auditing. Step Functions orchestrate complex workflows with conditional logic, retries, and notifications.

This architecture reduces operational overhead, ensures real-time processing, and provides fault-tolerant analytics. It aligns with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles for operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization. Organizations can deploy a highly scalable, serverless IoT analytics solution for rapid insights and operational intelligence, minimizing infrastructure management.

Question 191:

A company wants to provide temporary, secure access to S3 objects for external partners without creating IAM users. Which approach is recommended?

Answer:

A) Pre-signed URLs with CloudTrail logging
B) Public S3 bucket
C) Shared IAM credentials
D) S3 Standard only

Explanation:

Option A is correct. Pre-signed URLs provide temporary access to specific S3 objects without creating IAM users. Each URL has a defined expiration time and can restrict operations such as GET or PUT, ensuring secure, temporary, and object-specific access. CloudTrail logs all access events, supporting auditing and compliance requirements.

Public S3 buckets expose data to the internet, creating security vulnerabilities. Shared IAM credentials violate least-privilege principles and make auditing difficult. S3 Standard is a storage class and does not provide temporary access control mechanisms.

Pre-signed URLs can be dynamically generated via SDKs, Lambda functions, or API Gateway. They ensure that external partners have controlled access while maintaining encryption in transit (HTTPS) and at rest (KMS). Access patterns and anomalies can be monitored via CloudWatch, providing operational visibility.

This approach reduces operational overhead while providing secure, auditable access. Organizations maintain governance, regulatory compliance, and minimal security risk exposure. It aligns with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles for operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization. By using pre-signed URLs, companies enable secure collaboration with external partners without compromising internal access control policies or operational simplicity.

Question 192:

A company wants to reduce latency for a global web application and protect it from web-based attacks. Which architecture is most suitable?

Answer:

A) Amazon CloudFront with S3 or EC2 origin, AWS WAF, and AWS Shield
B) Single EC2 instance
C) S3 static website
D) Direct Connect

Explanation:

Option A is correct. Amazon CloudFront is a globally distributed CDN that caches content at edge locations, reducing latency by serving requests from the nearest location to the user. Using S3 as an origin works well for static content, while EC2 handles dynamic content. AWS WAF protects the application against web attacks such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and other OWASP vulnerabilities. AWS Shield safeguards against DDoS attacks, ensuring application availability even under heavy attack.

A single EC2 instance is a single point of failure and does not provide global performance optimization. S3 static websites cannot deliver dynamic content and lack advanced security protections. Direct Connect improves private network connectivity but does not reduce latency or provide web application security.

CloudFront supports caching, TTL configuration, origin failover, and Lambda@Edge for on-the-fly content modification. CloudWatch monitors cache hit ratios, latency, and error rates. CloudTrail logs configuration and access events, supporting auditing. IAM policies enforce least-privilege access, and KMS encrypts sensitive data.

This architecture improves performance, security, and operational efficiency, aligning with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles for operational excellence, performance efficiency, security, reliability, and cost optimization. Organizations benefit from secure, scalable, and globally optimized content delivery, minimizing latency and exposure to attacks without complex infrastructure management.

Option A is the most suitable architecture for reducing latency for a global web application while protecting it from web-based attacks. Amazon CloudFront is a fully managed, globally distributed content delivery network (CDN) that caches content at edge locations around the world. By serving content from the location nearest to the end user, CloudFront significantly reduces latency, improves page load times, and enhances the overall user experience for both static and dynamic web applications. Static content can be hosted on Amazon S3, providing a cost-effective and highly available storage solution, while dynamic content can be served using Amazon EC2 as the origin, allowing the application to respond to user interactions in real time.

AWS WAF integrates with CloudFront to provide protection against common web application attacks, including SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and other vulnerabilities listed by OWASP. This ensures that malicious requests are blocked before they reach the application infrastructure. AWS Shield provides additional protection against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, automatically mitigating traffic spikes and large-scale attacks to maintain application availability and performance.

CloudFront offers advanced features such as cache control, configurable time-to-live (TTL) settings, and origin failover to ensure content reliability. Lambda@Edge allows developers to execute custom logic closer to users, enabling real-time content manipulation, A/B testing, and security enforcement without impacting origin performance. Operational monitoring is provided through Amazon CloudWatch, which tracks metrics such as cache hit ratios, latency, and error rates. CloudTrail logs configuration changes and access events for auditing and compliance purposes. Access to resources is secured using IAM roles and policies following least-privilege principles, and sensitive data is encrypted using AWS Key Management Service (KMS).

Other options are less suitable. A single EC2 instance, option B, creates a single point of failure and cannot deliver optimized global performance. S3 static websites, option C, cannot process dynamic content and lack integrated security features. Direct Connect, option D, provides private connectivity but does not reduce latency or provide web application security.

By combining CloudFront, S3 or EC2 origins, AWS WAF, and AWS Shield, organizations achieve a globally optimized, secure, and highly available architecture. This solution aligns with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles for operational excellence, security, performance efficiency, reliability, and cost optimization. It allows businesses to deliver fast, resilient, and secure web applications to a worldwide audience while minimizing infrastructure management and operational overhead.

Question 193:

A company wants to migrate an on-premises PostgreSQL database to AWS with minimal downtime and high availability. Which solution is recommended?

Answer:

A) AWS DMS with Amazon RDS Multi-AZ PostgreSQL
B) EC2 with self-managed PostgreSQL
C) S3 only
D) DynamoDB

Explanation:

Option A is correct. AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) supports continuous replication from an on-premises PostgreSQL database to Amazon RDS, allowing near-zero downtime migrations. Amazon RDS Multi-AZ deployment ensures high availability by maintaining a synchronous standby replica in another Availability Zone, enabling automatic failover in case of primary database failure.

EC2 with self-managed PostgreSQL requires manual replication, patching, monitoring, and failover, increasing operational overhead. S3 is object storage and cannot host relational databases. DynamoDB is a NoSQL solution incompatible with PostgreSQL workloads.

DMS validates data during migration, supports ongoing replication, and minimizes downtime. RDS Multi-AZ automates backups, patching, failover, and maintenance tasks. CloudWatch monitors CPU, memory, storage usage, and replication lag. CloudTrail logs all API calls and configuration changes. IAM roles and KMS ensure secure access, while TLS encrypts data in transit.

This architecture ensures high availability, fault tolerance, minimal downtime, and business continuity. It aligns with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles for operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization. Organizations can migrate critical workloads safely while reducing administrative overhead, ensuring compliance, and maintaining operational continuity during migrations.

Question 194:

A company wants to implement automated backups and retention policies for EBS volumes with cross-region replication for disaster recovery. Which approach is most suitable?

Answer:

A) Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) with cross-region snapshot copy
B) Manual snapshots
C) EC2 scripts
D) S3 Standard

Explanation:

Option A is correct. Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager (DLM) automates the creation, retention, and deletion of EBS snapshots based on policy definitions. Cross-region snapshot copies ensure backups are available in multiple AWS regions, supporting disaster recovery, compliance, and business continuity.

Manual snapshots require human intervention and increase operational risk. EC2 scripts require continuous maintenance and monitoring. S3 is object storage and cannot manage EBS snapshots.

DLM supports incremental snapshots, reducing storage costs while maintaining performance. Policies define backup schedules, retention periods, and cross-region replication rules. CloudWatch monitors snapshot creation, status, and replication. CloudTrail logs all actions for auditing and compliance. KMS encryption secures snapshots, and IAM policies enforce access controls.

This architecture provides automated, reliable, and cost-efficient backup management. Organizations can quickly restore EBS volumes in other regions in case of failures, maintaining business continuity. It aligns with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles for operational excellence, reliability, security, and cost optimization. The solution reduces operational complexity while ensuring disaster recovery readiness, scalability, and compliance.

Question 195:

A company wants to deploy a serverless web application that scales automatically and charges only for actual usage. Which services should be used?

Answer:

A) AWS Lambda, API Gateway, and DynamoDB
B) EC2 instances
C) Elastic Beanstalk with RDS
D) S3 only

Explanation:

Option A is correct. AWS Lambda provides serverless compute that automatically scales based on incoming traffic and charges only for execution time. API Gateway exposes RESTful endpoints and triggers Lambda functions to handle requests. DynamoDB offers fully managed NoSQL storage with automatic scaling and low-latency access.

EC2 instances require manual management, scaling, and patching. Elastic Beanstalk relies on EC2, making it partially managed rather than fully serverless. S3 cannot host dynamic content.

Serverless architecture supports event-driven workflows, integrating with services such as S3, SNS, and Kinesis. CloudWatch monitors Lambda execution, API Gateway requests, and DynamoDB throughput. IAM enforces least-privilege access. KMS ensures data encryption at rest.

This solution reduces operational complexity, costs, and manual intervention while enabling rapid deployment. It aligns with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles for operational excellence, reliability, security, performance efficiency, and cost optimization. Organizations can deploy scalable, fault-tolerant applications with global reach and minimal infrastructure management.

Question 196:

A company wants to implement a real-time analytics pipeline for IoT data that is highly scalable, fault-tolerant, and low-latency. Which architecture is recommended?

Answer:

A) Amazon Kinesis Data Streams, Lambda, and DynamoDB
B) S3 only
C) EC2 batch processing
D) RDS Multi-AZ

Explanation:

Option A is correct. Kinesis Data Streams ingests high-volume IoT data in real-time, dividing streams into shards for parallel processing. Lambda functions process events automatically, performing transformations, aggregations, and filtering. Processed data is stored in DynamoDB for fast, low-latency retrieval.

S3 is designed for batch processing, unsuitable for real-time streaming. EC2 batch processing introduces latency and requires manual management. RDS Multi-AZ is highly available for relational workloads but not optimized for continuous streaming.

Kinesis provides durability, fault tolerance, and replay capabilities. Lambda scales automatically and integrates with dead-letter queues. DynamoDB supports encryption at rest, IAM access control, and global tables for multi-region replication. CloudWatch monitors execution, throughput, and latency. CloudTrail logs API calls. Step Functions orchestrate workflows with retries, notifications, and conditional logic.

This architecture reduces operational overhead, provides real-time processing, and ensures fault tolerance. It aligns with AWS Well-Architected Framework principles for operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization. Organizations can deploy scalable, serverless IoT analytics pipelines for rapid insights and operational intelligence.

Question 197:

A company wants to provide temporary, secure access to S3 objects for external partners without creating IAM users. Which approach is most appropriate?

Answer:

A) Pre-signed URLs with CloudTrail logging
B) Public S3 bucket
C) Shared IAM credentials
D) S3 Standard only

Explanation:

Option A is correct. Pre-signed URLs allow temporary access to specific S3 objects without IAM users. Each URL has an expiration time and can restrict operations. CloudTrail logs all access events for auditing.

Public S3 buckets expose data to the internet, creating security risks. Shared IAM credentials violate least-privilege principles. S3 Standard is a storage class, not an access control mechanism.

Pre-signed URLs can be generated dynamically via SDKs, Lambda, or API Gateway. They enforce secure, temporary access with HTTPS encryption and KMS-managed encryption at rest. CloudWatch monitors access for anomalies.

This solution reduces operational complexity, ensures compliance, and provides secure, auditable external access. It aligns with AWS Well-Architected principles for operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization.

Question 198:

A company wants to reduce latency for a global web application while ensuring security against web attacks. Which architecture is best suited?

Answer:

A) Amazon CloudFront with S3 or EC2 origin, AWS WAF, and AWS Shield
B) Single EC2 instance
C) S3 static website
D) Direct Connect

Explanation:

Option A is correct. CloudFront caches content at edge locations worldwide, reducing latency and improving user experience. AWS WAF protects against common attacks, and AWS Shield safeguards against DDoS attacks.

Single EC2 instance lacks global performance optimization. S3 static websites cannot serve dynamic content. Direct Connect improves private connectivity but does not reduce latency or provide web security.

CloudFront supports TTL caching, origin failover, and Lambda@Edge content modification. CloudWatch monitors performance and latency. CloudTrail logs configuration changes. IAM and KMS provide security controls.

This architecture improves performance, security, fault tolerance, and operational efficiency. It aligns with AWS Well-Architected principles.

Question 199:

A company wants to migrate an on-premises SQL Server database to AWS with minimal downtime and high availability. Which solution is recommended?

Answer:

A) AWS DMS with Amazon RDS Multi-AZ SQL Server
B) EC2 with self-managed SQL Server
C) S3 only
D) DynamoDB

Explanation:

Option A is correct. DMS allows continuous replication to RDS, minimizing downtime. Multi-AZ RDS provides automatic failover.

EC2 requires manual replication and patching. S3 cannot host relational databases. DynamoDB is NoSQL, unsuitable for SQL Server.

DMS ensures data consistency and minimal downtime. RDS Multi-AZ automates backups, patching, failover. CloudWatch monitors performance. CloudTrail logs actions for compliance. KMS and IAM secure data.

This approach provides operational simplicity, high availability, and disaster recovery readiness. It aligns with AWS Well-Architected principles.

Question 200:

A company wants to implement a serverless web application that automatically scales and charges only for actual usage. Which services are most suitable?

Answer:

A) AWS Lambda, API Gateway, and DynamoDB
B) EC2 instances
C) Elastic Beanstalk with RDS
D) S3 only

Explanation:

Option A is correct. Lambda executes application logic serverlessly and scales automatically. API Gateway triggers Lambda functions via REST endpoints. DynamoDB offers low-latency, fully managed NoSQL storage.

EC2 requires manual scaling and management. Elastic Beanstalk relies on EC2. S3 cannot handle dynamic content.

Serverless architecture supports event-driven workflows, integrates with other services, and reduces operational overhead. CloudWatch monitors execution, API Gateway metrics, and DynamoDB throughput. IAM enforces least-privilege access. KMS encrypts sensitive data.

Organizations gain cost efficiency, operational simplicity, and scalability. The solution aligns with AWS Well-Architected principles for operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization. It is ideal for variable workloads, global deployment, and event-driven applications, enabling rapid development and fault-tolerant, serverless architecture.