Solutions Architect Professional · 29% of the exam

Design for New Solutions: free practice questions

5 sample questions from our 15-question bank for this domain — answers and explanations included. These are the same scenario-based style as the real AWS exam.

1. A new relational database must survive an AZ failure automatically with minimal data loss, without the team managing replication. Which option should the architect recommend?

  • A. Amazon RDS Multi-AZ deployment✓ Correct
  • B. A single-AZ RDS instance with nightly snapshots
  • C. Self-managed database replication on EC2
  • D. DynamoDB with no backups
Explanation

RDS Multi-AZ maintains a synchronous standby in another AZ with automatic failover and no manual replication management. A single-AZ instance with snapshots (B) risks downtime and data loss, self-managed EC2 replication (C) adds operational burden, and DynamoDB with no backups (D) changes the data model and lacks protection.

2. A team wants to deploy a new version of a service so that a small percentage of traffic goes to the new version first, monitored before full rollout, with automatic rollback on errors. Which deployment strategy should the architect recommend?

  • A. Canary deployment (e.g., via CodeDeploy traffic shifting)✓ Correct
  • B. In-place all-at-once replacement
  • C. Deleting the old version before deploying the new one
  • D. Manual FTP upload to production
Explanation

A canary deployment shifts a small traffic percentage to the new version first, monitoring before full rollout with automatic rollback (CodeDeploy supports canary/linear traffic shifting for Lambda/ECS). All-at-once (B) maximizes blast radius, deleting first (C) risks an outage, and manual FTP (D) is not a controlled deployment.

3. A new multi-tier application must ensure that only the load balancer can reach the web tier, only the web tier can reach the app tier, and only the app tier can reach the database. Which AWS controls implement this segmentation?

  • A. Security groups referencing each other, with subnets and NACLs for tier isolation✓ Correct
  • B. One open security group shared by all tiers
  • C. Public subnets for every tier with open access
  • D. Assigning public IPs to the database
Explanation

Tier-to-tier security groups that reference each other (plus private subnets and NACLs) enforce least-privilege network paths between tiers. A single open security group (B), public subnets everywhere (C), and a public database (D) all violate segmentation and least privilege.

4. A cost-sensitive new batch workload can tolerate interruptions and restarts. Which EC2 purchasing option minimizes cost for this fault-tolerant work?

  • A. Spot Instances✓ Correct
  • B. On-Demand Instances running 24/7
  • C. Dedicated Hosts
  • D. Reserved Instances with no flexibility
Explanation

Spot Instances offer the deepest discount for interruption-tolerant, restartable workloads like fault-tolerant batch jobs. On-Demand (B) is the most expensive steady option, Dedicated Hosts (C) are for licensing/compliance at premium cost, and Reserved Instances (D) suit steady 24/7 usage, not interruptible batch.

5. A new solution must encrypt data at rest with keys the company controls and can audit and rotate, integrated with S3, EBS, and RDS. Which service should the architect recommend?

  • A. AWS Key Management Service (KMS) with customer-managed keys✓ Correct
  • B. Hard-coded encryption keys in application code
  • C. No encryption to reduce latency
  • D. Storing keys in a public S3 bucket
Explanation

AWS KMS provides managed, auditable, rotatable encryption keys integrated with S3, EBS, RDS, and more, with customer-managed keys for control. Hard-coded keys (B) and keys in a public bucket (D) are severe security failures, and skipping encryption (C) fails the requirement.

10 more questions in this domain

Practice the full bank with instant grading, flashcards, and a timed mock exam.

Start practicing free
Design for New Solutions — Free Solutions Architect Professional Practice Questions | DataCertPrep — Certification Prep