AWS Solutions Architect Professional (SAP-C02) · 25% practice allocation

AWS SAP-C02: Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Questions

5 free sample questions from the Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions domain, with answers and explanations. The full SAP-C02 bank has 59 questions across 4 domains. Questions are scenario-based and written from the official AWS exam guide.

An existing single-Region workload must improve availability to survive a full Regional outage for a critical, revenue-generating service. Which improvement is appropriate?

A. Add a second instance in the same Region
B. Take more frequent EBS snapshots in the same Region
C. Introduce a multi-Region strategy (e.g., active-passive with Route 53 failover or active-active) for the critical service✓ Correct
D. Increase the instance size

Explanation

Surviving a Regional outage requires a multi-Region strategy (active-passive with Route 53 health-check failover, or active-active). Same-Region measures (B, C, D) don't protect against the loss of the whole Region.

An existing application experiences repeated identical database reads for reference data that changes rarely. Which improvement reduces database load and latency?

A. Increase the instance's disk size
B. Disable the database's query cache
C. Add more read replicas for the reference data only
D. Add Amazon ElastiCache (Redis/Memcached) as a caching layer✓ Correct

Explanation

ElastiCache caches frequently read, slowly changing data in memory, cutting database load and latency. Read replicas (C) help but are heavier for simple reference caching, disk size (A) doesn't address read latency, and disabling caching (B) is counterproductive.

A read-heavy relational database is struggling under reporting queries that slow down transactions. Which improvement should the architect recommend?

A. Increase the transaction timeout
B. Delete historical rows to shrink the table
C. Add read replicas and route read/reporting traffic to them✓ Correct
D. Move the database to a single smaller instance

Explanation

Read replicas offload read/reporting queries from the primary, relieving contention with transactional writes. Increasing timeouts (A) masks the symptom, deleting data (B) loses information, and downsizing (D) worsens performance.

A team wants deeper insight into request latency and to pinpoint which microservice in a distributed application is causing slow responses. Which service should the architect recommend?

A. AWS X-Ray (distributed tracing)✓ Correct
B. Amazon S3 access logs only
C. Amazon Route 53 health checks
D. AWS Cost Explorer

Explanation

AWS X-Ray traces requests end-to-end across microservices, revealing latency and bottlenecks per component. S3 access logs (B) only cover S3, Cost Explorer (D) analyzes spend, and Route 53 health checks (C) test endpoint availability, not internal request tracing.

A steady, predictable production workload has run on On-Demand EC2 for two years. Finance wants to reduce compute cost without changing the architecture. What should the architect recommend?

A. Purchase Compute Savings Plans or Reserved Instances for the steady baseline✓ Correct
B. Delete the workload at night
C. Switch everything to Spot Instances
D. Move to Dedicated Hosts

Explanation

Savings Plans or Reserved Instances give significant discounts for steady, predictable usage in exchange for a 1- or 3-year commitment — the right lever for a stable baseline. Spot (C) risks interruption for a production baseline, deleting nightly (B) isn't viable for always-on, and Dedicated Hosts (D) usually cost more.

Test yourself across every SAP-C02 domain

The free SAP-C02 practice test mixes about 20 questions weighted like the exam. The full 59-question bank adds instant grading, flashcards and a timed mock exam.

Take the free SAP-C02 practice test Practice the full bank

Study this domain

Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions study guide (SAP-C02) →

Other SAP-C02 domains

← All AWS Solutions Architect Professional study resources