AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03) — Questions and Answers

Question 1: Which AWS service should you use to centrally manage rules and billing across different accounts?

AWS Config
AWS Trusted Advisors
AWS Organizations (Correct answer)
AWS Budgets

Correct answer: AWS Organizations

For high availability and fault tolerance, it is recommended to deploy an Application Load Balancer (ALB) across at least two Availability Zones. This configuration ensures that if one Availability Zone becomes unavailable, the ALB can continue to route traffic to healthy instances in the other active Availability Zone, maintaining application uptime.

Question 2: An architect is designing a VPC and needs to ensure that a subnet in us-east-1a is isolated from another subnet in us-east-1b. Which resource enforces this boundary?

Network ACL (Correct answer)
Internet Gateway
Security Group
Route Table

Correct answer: Network ACL

Network ACLs control traffic at the subnet boundary and can be used to filter traffic between subnets in different availability zones within a VPC.

Question 3: What is the correct procedure when installing a welding cable that must pass through a metal conduit?

Wrap the cable in electrical tape before threading
Coat the cable with grease to reduce friction
Use a conduit fitting with a protective bushing or grommet (Correct answer)
Double the cable back on itself at the entry point

Correct answer: Use a conduit fitting with a protective bushing or grommet

A protective bushing or grommet prevents the sharp metal edges of the conduit from abrading and damaging the cable insulation.

Question 4: Which DynamoDB capacity mode automatically adjusts throughput based on actual traffic patterns without requiring capacity planning?

On-Demand capacity mode (Correct answer)
Burst capacity mode
Reserved capacity mode
Provisioned capacity mode with Auto Scaling

Correct answer: On-Demand capacity mode

DynamoDB On-Demand mode instantly accommodates any traffic level without pre-provisioning capacity, paying per request.

Question 5: Which AWS service provides centralized logging and monitoring?

Amazon Lightsail
AWS Auto Scaling
AWS CloudTrail (Correct answer)
AWS Route 53

Correct answer: AWS CloudTrail

AWS CloudTrail is a service that enables governance, compliance, operational auditing, and risk auditing of your AWS account. It records API calls and related events made by a user, role, or an AWS service, providing a history of activity for security analysis and troubleshooting. This centralized logging helps monitor actions taken across your AWS infrastructure.

Question 6: A company wants to detect when an EC2 instance's CPU utilization remains above 90% for more than 15 consecutive minutes. Which CloudWatch alarm configuration should be used?

Set threshold to 90%, period to 900 seconds, evaluation periods to 1
Set threshold to 90%, period to 60 seconds, evaluation periods to 15
Set threshold to 90%, period to 300 seconds, evaluation periods to 3 (Correct answer)
Set threshold to 90%, period to 900 seconds, evaluation periods to 3

Correct answer: Set threshold to 90%, period to 300 seconds, evaluation periods to 3

Setting a 300-second period with 3 consecutive evaluation periods means the alarm triggers only after 15 minutes of sustained high CPU.

Question 7: A DevOps team uses AWS CloudFormation for infrastructure deployments and notices high costs from frequent stack updates in lower environments. Which approach best reduces these costs?

Use CloudFormation Change Sets to preview and batch changes before applying (Correct answer)
Switch to AWS CDK to avoid CloudFormation costs
Disable drift detection to reduce API calls
Deploy all environments into a single CloudFormation stack

Correct answer: Use CloudFormation Change Sets to preview and batch changes before applying

Change Sets allow teams to review and batch multiple infrastructure changes before a single deployment, reducing the number of stack update operations and associated resource churn.

Question 8: A development team is building a new mobile gaming application that requires a database for storing player scores and session data. The application needs extremely low latency (single-digit milliseconds) for both reads and writes, and it must scale seamlessly to handle millions of users with unpredictable traffic patterns. Which AWS database service is the most appropriate choice for this use case?

Amazon S3
Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL with Multi-AZ
Amazon Redshift
Amazon DynamoDB (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Amazon DynamoDB

Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed NoSQL database service that provides fast and predictable performance with seamless scalability. It is designed for applications that require consistent, single-digit millisecond latency at any scale, making it ideal for use cases like mobile gaming, ad tech, and session stores. RDS is a relational database and may not provide the same level of low-latency performance at massive scale for this access pattern. Redshift is a data warehouse for analytics, and S3 is an object store, not a low-latency database.

Question 9: A company uses an ALB with WAF. They want to ensure traffic is served even if the primary region becomes unavailable, with automatic DNS failover to a secondary region. Which architecture achieves this?

Global Accelerator with endpoints in two regions and health checks enabled (Correct answer)
Route 53 health checks with failover records pointing to ALBs in two different regions
CloudFront with two ALB origins and Route 53 latency routing
Two ALBs in the same region with weighted Route 53 routing

Correct answer: Global Accelerator with endpoints in two regions and health checks enabled

AWS Global Accelerator uses anycast IPs with health checks to route traffic to healthy regional endpoints, providing automatic failover with low-latency static IPs.

Question 10: What role does collaboration play in cost optimization for AWS DevOps professionals?

It is only needed in emergencies
It reduces individual accountability
It slows down work unnecessarily
It enhances outcomes through diverse perspectives and shared expertise (Correct answer)

Correct answer: It enhances outcomes through diverse perspectives and shared expertise

Collaboration leverages diverse perspectives and combined expertise to achieve better outcomes than any individual could alone.

Question 11: A solutions architect needs to process millions of small tasks asynchronously at the lowest possible cost. Which compute option is best?

AWS Fargate
EC2 Reserved Instances
AWS Lambda (Correct answer)
EC2 On-Demand

Correct answer: AWS Lambda

AWS Lambda charges only for actual compute time in millisecond increments with no idle costs, making it ideal for infrequent or short-duration tasks.

Question 12: A solutions architect is designing a DR plan and needs to minimize costs while keeping a warm standby in a secondary region with an RTO under 30 minutes. Which strategy fits best?

Warm standby (Correct answer)
Multi-site active-active
Backup and restore
Pilot light

Correct answer: Warm standby

A warm standby maintains a scaled-down but fully functional environment in the secondary region, enabling promotion within the 30-minute RTO without the full cost of active-active.

Question 13: An application uses EC2 instances behind an ALB. During deployment, the team needs to remove instances from load balancing without dropping active connections. Which feature enables this?

Target group deregistration delay (connection draining) (Correct answer)
ALB slow start mode
ALB listener rule priority adjustment
Auto Scaling instance standby state

Correct answer: Target group deregistration delay (connection draining)

Deregistration delay keeps a deregistering target in service for a configurable period (default 300s) to complete in-flight requests before termination.

Question 14: Which approach best supports quality outcomes in Material Selection & Properties for AWS Certified Welder?

Systematic application of evidence-based methods (Correct answer)
Avoiding quality checks
Relying solely on intuition
Rushing through tasks

Correct answer: Systematic application of evidence-based methods

Evidence-based methods provide a reliable foundation for achieving consistent, high-quality outcomes.

Question 15: A company has EC2 instances with consistent baseline usage plus occasional spikes. Which combination is most cost-optimized?

All Spot Instances
All On-Demand Instances
Reserved Instances for baseline, Spot for spikes (Correct answer)
Dedicated Hosts for all workloads

Correct answer: Reserved Instances for baseline, Spot for spikes

Covering predictable baseline with Reserved Instances and handling spikes with Spot Instances minimizes total cost while maintaining availability.

Question 16: Which distortion control method involves applying heat to the opposite side of a distorted weld to straighten the part?

Flame (heat) straightening (Correct answer)
Peening
Vibratory stress relief
Mechanical restraint

Correct answer: Flame (heat) straightening

Flame straightening uses controlled application of heat to the convex side of a distorted part, which contracts on cooling and straightens the piece.

Question 17: A team stores all CodeBuild build logs and artifacts indefinitely in S3. What is the most cost-effective way to manage this data over time?

Enable S3 Intelligent-Tiering on the bucket
Enable S3 Requester Pays on the bucket
Apply S3 Lifecycle policies to transition old artifacts to S3 Glacier and expire them after 90 days (Correct answer)
Use S3 Reduced Redundancy Storage for all artifacts

Correct answer: Apply S3 Lifecycle policies to transition old artifacts to S3 Glacier and expire them after 90 days

S3 Lifecycle policies automate transitioning infrequently accessed artifacts to cheaper storage classes and deleting them after a retention period, directly reducing storage costs.

Question 18: An application running on EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer experiences unpredictable traffic spikes. The company wants to ensure that the application can handle the increased load automatically without manual intervention and also scale down to reduce costs during quiet periods. Which AWS service should be used in conjunction with the Application Load Balancer?

AWS Lambda
Elastic IP Addresses
Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling (Correct answer)
Amazon CloudWatch Alarms

Correct answer: Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling is designed to automatically adjust the number of EC2 instances in a group to meet the current demand. It works with Elastic Load Balancing to add or remove instances from the load balancer's target group based on metrics like CPU utilization, ensuring both scalability and cost-efficiency.

Question 19: Which document outlines the specific inspection procedures for a weld project?

Inspection log
Material certificate
WPS (Correct answer)
Blueprint

Correct answer: WPS

A Welding Procedure Specification (WPS) is a formal written document that provides detailed instructions for performing a weld. It outlines all essential and non-essential variables, including joint design, filler material, welding process, preheat, and post-weld heat treatment. The WPS also specifies the required inspection procedures and acceptance criteria, ensuring consistency and quality throughout the welding project.

Question 20: What is the primary function of delta ferrite in austenitic stainless steel weld metal?

Increases hardness by blocking dislocation motion
Promotes sensitization by stabilizing chromium carbides
Reduces hot cracking susceptibility by dissolving impurity segregates (Correct answer)
Increases corrosion resistance by acting as a cathode

Correct answer: Reduces hot cracking susceptibility by dissolving impurity segregates

Delta ferrite (3–8 FN) in austenitic weld deposits is beneficial because it can dissolve low-melting impurities (S, P) that would otherwise segregate to austenite grain boundaries and cause hot cracking.

Question 21: Which action reduces costs when using Amazon EventBridge rules to trigger CodePipeline executions?

Use the default event bus instead of custom event buses
Increase the retry count on EventBridge targets
Add event pattern filters to EventBridge rules to avoid triggering pipelines on irrelevant events (Correct answer)
Convert all EventBridge rules to scheduled rules

Correct answer: Add event pattern filters to EventBridge rules to avoid triggering pipelines on irrelevant events

Precise event patterns filter out irrelevant events before they trigger pipeline executions, reducing unnecessary pipeline runs and their associated build, test, and deploy costs.

Question 22: Which AWS database service is a fully managed, serverless, key-value NoSQL database designed for high-performance applications?

Amazon RDS
Amazon Aurora
Amazon Redshift
Amazon DynamoDB (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Amazon DynamoDB

Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed, serverless, key-value and document NoSQL database that delivers single-digit millisecond performance at any scale.

Question 23: What is the maximum size of a Lambda deployment package that can be uploaded directly (not via S3)?

10 MB
500 MB
50 MB (Correct answer)
250 MB

Correct answer: 50 MB

Lambda accepts direct deployment package uploads up to 50 MB (zipped); larger packages must be stored in S3 and referenced.

Question 24: Which AWS service acts as a fully managed cache layer that supports both Redis and Memcached engines?

AWS Global Accelerator
Amazon ElastiCache (Correct answer)
Amazon DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX)
Amazon MemoryDB for Redis

Correct answer: Amazon ElastiCache

Amazon ElastiCache is a managed in-memory caching service that supports both Redis and Memcached.

Question 25: A security team requires that all pipeline artifacts be encrypted with a customer-managed KMS key rather than the default AWS-managed key. Where is this configured?

In the CodeBuild project's environment variables as KMS_KEY_ARN
In the IAM role policy attached to the CodePipeline service role
In the CodePipeline pipeline configuration under the artifact store encryption key setting (Correct answer)
In the S3 bucket default encryption policy applied to the artifact bucket

Correct answer: In the CodePipeline pipeline configuration under the artifact store encryption key setting

CodePipeline's artifact store configuration accepts an optional encryption key field where you specify a customer-managed KMS key ARN to encrypt all pipeline artifacts.

Question 26: What makes a professional competent in Compute and Storage Services?

Only experience matters
Only certifications matter
Only formal education matters
A combination of education, practical experience, ongoing learning, and adherence to professional standards (Correct answer)

Correct answer: A combination of education, practical experience, ongoing learning, and adherence to professional standards

Competence requires the integration of knowledge, skills, experience, and professional conduct.

Question 27: Which AWS standard governs the qualification of welding procedures and welders for piping and tubing?

AWS B2.1 (Correct answer)
AWS D1.1
AWS D1.6
AWS A5.18

Correct answer: AWS B2.1

AWS B2.1 covers the specification for welding procedure and performance qualification applicable to a broad range of base metals including piping.

Question 28: Which AWS Cost Explorer feature helps a DevOps team identify which CI/CD pipeline components are driving the highest AWS spend?

Savings Plans coverage reports
Trusted Advisor cost checks
Cost allocation tags filtered by pipeline name or environment (Correct answer)
Reserved Instance utilization reports

Correct answer: Cost allocation tags filtered by pipeline name or environment

Cost allocation tags applied to pipeline-created resources (e.g., 'pipeline:my-app', 'env:staging') allow Cost Explorer to break down spend by pipeline component or environment.

Question 29: How does collaboration enhance Tools & Equipment Operation in AWS Certified Welder?

It slows down the process
It brings diverse perspectives and improves outcomes (Correct answer)
It creates unnecessary meetings
It reduces individual accountability

Correct answer: It brings diverse perspectives and improves outcomes

Collaboration brings together different viewpoints and expertise, leading to better decision-making and outcomes.

Question 30: A team uses AWS Config to monitor CloudFormation stacks. Which AWS Config feature detects when a stack's actual resource configuration diverges from its template?

CloudWatch Alarms on Config
CloudFormation Drift Detection (Correct answer)
AWS Config Conformance Packs
AWS Config Rules

Correct answer: CloudFormation Drift Detection

CloudFormation Drift Detection compares the current configuration of stack resources against the expected configuration defined in the stack template.

Question 31: A DevOps team uses Systems Manager Automation documents to run remediation tasks across hundreds of accounts. Which approach minimizes SSM Automation costs?

Consolidate multiple small automation steps into fewer, larger documents (Correct answer)
Use SSM Run Command instead of Automation for all tasks
Use SSM State Manager associations instead of Automation
Schedule automations during off-peak hours only

Correct answer: Consolidate multiple small automation steps into fewer, larger documents

SSM Automation pricing is per automation step executed; consolidating steps reduces the total step count and therefore total cost.

Question 32: Laminar tearing is found in a thick plate T-joint after welding. Which base metal property contributes most to this defect?

High phosphorus content
Excessive grain size
Low through-thickness ductility (lamellar inclusions parallel to the surface) (Correct answer)
High carbon content

Correct answer: Low through-thickness ductility (lamellar inclusions parallel to the surface)

Lamellar tearing occurs in steel with low through-thickness ductility due to elongated sulfide or silicate inclusions that allow tearing under through-thickness shrinkage stress.

Question 33: An organization wants to capture all API calls made to their AWS account across all regions and store them in a single S3 bucket. Which CloudTrail configuration achieves this?

Use AWS Config to record API calls and export to S3
Create a multi-region trail and specify a single S3 bucket as the destination (Correct answer)
Create a regional trail in each region pointing to separate S3 buckets, then use S3 replication
Enable CloudTrail in the us-east-1 region only, as it captures global service events

Correct answer: Create a multi-region trail and specify a single S3 bucket as the destination

A multi-region CloudTrail trail automatically captures API activity from all regions and delivers logs to a single designated S3 bucket.

Question 34: In SAW, what is the primary purpose of the flux layer covering the arc?

To shield the arc and molten pool from atmospheric contamination (Correct answer)
To increase travel speed
To preheat the base metal
To reduce electrode consumption

Correct answer: To shield the arc and molten pool from atmospheric contamination

The flux layer completely submerges the arc, protecting the weld from oxygen and nitrogen contamination while also stabilizing the arc.

Question 35: A company uses AWS Lambda in its CI/CD pipeline for custom approval logic. Lambda is invoked thousands of times per day. Which configuration change can reduce Lambda costs?

Use Provisioned Concurrency for all functions
Convert Lambda functions to container image format
Increase the Lambda memory to maximum to reduce duration
Right-size Lambda memory using AWS Lambda Power Tuning (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Right-size Lambda memory using AWS Lambda Power Tuning

AWS Lambda Power Tuning finds the optimal memory setting that balances execution duration and cost, often finding a sweet spot that minimizes total compute cost.

Question 36: Which AWS Well-Architected Framework pillar focuses on running workloads efficiently and cost-effectively?

Reliability
Operational Excellence
Cost Optimization (Correct answer)
Security

Correct answer: Cost Optimization

The Cost Optimization pillar focuses on avoiding unnecessary costs and delivering value efficiently.

Question 37: Which EC2 purchasing option is most appropriate for a fault-tolerant, stateless batch processing workload that can be interrupted and resumed, where minimizing cost is the top priority?

Spot Instances (Correct answer)
Dedicated Instances
On-Demand Instances
Reserved Instances

Correct answer: Spot Instances

Spot Instances use spare EC2 capacity and can be up to 90% cheaper than On-Demand, but can be interrupted with a 2-minute warning. They are ideal for stateless, fault-tolerant workloads like batch jobs that can checkpoint and resume.

Question 38: Which load balancer type is best suited for routing gRPC traffic between microservices on AWS?

Application Load Balancer (Correct answer)
Network Load Balancer
Gateway Load Balancer
Classic Load Balancer

Correct answer: Application Load Balancer

ALB supports gRPC as a protocol for target groups, enabling HTTP/2-based gRPC traffic routing between microservices.

Question 39: Which Auto Scaling lifecycle hook allows a custom script to run before an instance is terminated during a scale-in event?

EC2_INSTANCE_TERMINATING hook with CONTINUE action (Correct answer)
EC2_INSTANCE_LAUNCHING hook with CONTINUE action
EC2_INSTANCE_LAUNCHING hook with ABANDON action
EC2_INSTANCE_TERMINATING hook with ABANDON action

Correct answer: EC2_INSTANCE_TERMINATING hook with CONTINUE action

The EC2_INSTANCE_TERMINATING hook pauses termination, allowing cleanup scripts to run, and CONTINUE resumes the termination afterward.

Question 40: Which approach best demonstrates mastery of high availability in AWS DevOps practice?

Relying entirely on technology
Applying principles to novel situations with sound judgment (Correct answer)
Following procedures without understanding
Avoiding complex scenarios

Correct answer: Applying principles to novel situations with sound judgment

True mastery involves understanding underlying principles well enough to apply them to new and unfamiliar situations with professional judgment.

Question 41: What is porosity in a weld?

External crack
Lack of fusion
Surface burn
Gas-filled cavities (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Gas-filled cavities

Porosity in a weld refers to small, gas-filled cavities or voids within the weld metal. These cavities are formed when gases, such as hydrogen, oxygen, or nitrogen, become trapped in the molten weld pool as it solidifies. Porosity can weaken the weld, reduce its ductility, and potentially lead to premature failure under stress.

Question 42: What is the purpose of Amazon ElastiCache write-through strategy?

Data is written to both cache and the database simultaneously (Correct answer)
Data is written to cache only, bypassing the database
Data is written to the database first, then evicted from cache
Data is written asynchronously to cache after a database write

Correct answer: Data is written to both cache and the database simultaneously

Write-through ensures cache and database stay synchronized by writing to both on every update, preventing stale reads.

Question 43: To enforce least-privilege access to AWS resources, which service should you primarily configure?

AWS Shield
Amazon GuardDuty
AWS WAF
AWS IAM (Correct answer)

Correct answer: AWS IAM

AWS IAM manages users, roles, and policies to grant fine-grained, least-privilege access to resources.

Question 44: Which AWS database service is compatible with Apache Cassandra workloads?

Amazon Neptune
Amazon Timestream
Amazon DocumentDB
Amazon Keyspaces (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Amazon Keyspaces

Amazon Keyspaces is a managed, Cassandra-compatible wide-column database.

Question 45: In a CodeDeploy blue/green deployment to EC2, what happens to the original (blue) instances after a successful deployment and traffic shift?

They are immediately terminated automatically
They remain running for a configurable wait period before termination, allowing rollback if needed (Correct answer)
They are deregistered from the load balancer but kept running indefinitely
They are converted to standby instances in the Auto Scaling group

Correct answer: They remain running for a configurable wait period before termination, allowing rollback if needed

CodeDeploy retains blue instances for a configurable time window after the traffic shift, enabling quick rollback before they are terminated.

Question 46: What is the most important professional competency for AWS DevOps certification in high availability?

Ability to work alone exclusively
Deep knowledge combined with practical application skills (Correct answer)
Speed of task completion
Memorization of all reference materials

Correct answer: Deep knowledge combined with practical application skills

Professional competency requires both deep knowledge of the subject matter and the ability to apply that knowledge in practical situations.

Question 47: A company wants to run a stateful containerized application on AWS without managing servers. Which service should they use?

Amazon EC2 with Docker installed manually
AWS Fargate (Correct answer)
Amazon ECS with EC2 launch type
AWS Lambda

Correct answer: AWS Fargate

AWS Fargate is a serverless compute engine for containers that removes the need to provision or manage EC2 instances.

Question 48: Which GMAW transfer mode is characterized by the wire tip never actually touching the base metal, with metal crossing the arc as fine droplets?

Pulsed spray transfer
Globular transfer
Spray transfer (Correct answer)
Short-circuit transfer

Correct answer: Spray transfer

Spray transfer occurs above a critical current threshold where metal transfers as a fine axial spray across the arc without contact with the base metal.

Question 49: When performing ultrasonic testing (UT) per AWS D1.1, the reference calibration block must be made from material with an acoustic velocity within what tolerance of the production weld material?

±1%
±10%
±15%
±5% (Correct answer)

Correct answer: ±5%

AWS D1.1 Annex S requires UT calibration blocks to have acoustic velocity within ±5% of the production material to ensure accurate flaw sizing.

Question 50: Which CloudFront cache behavior setting determines how long objects remain in the CloudFront cache before CloudFront forwards another request to the origin?

Cache-Control TTL
Origin Request Policy
Cache Policy (Correct answer)
Viewer Protocol Policy

Correct answer: Cache Policy

Cache Policies in CloudFront define the TTL settings and which headers, cookies, and query strings are included in the cache key.

Question 51: When qualifying a welder for plate welding, passing a 3G position test qualifies the welder to weld in which positions?

Vertical only
Flat, horizontal, and vertical (Correct answer)
Flat and horizontal only
All positions including overhead

Correct answer: Flat, horizontal, and vertical

Qualification in the 3G (vertical) position qualifies the welder to weld in the flat (1G), horizontal (2G), and vertical (3G) positions per AWS D1.1.

Question 52: A team runs hourly health-check Lambda functions as part of their post-deployment verification. Lambda logs generate significant CloudWatch Logs costs. What is the best mitigation?

Disable CloudWatch Logs for all Lambda functions
Switch Lambda logging to X-Ray traces only
Set CloudWatch Logs retention policies on Lambda log groups to 7 days instead of Never Expire (Correct answer)
Increase Lambda memory to reduce the number of log entries

Correct answer: Set CloudWatch Logs retention policies on Lambda log groups to 7 days instead of Never Expire

CloudWatch Logs storage is billed monthly per GB stored; setting a short retention period on frequently-writing Lambda log groups significantly reduces the total stored log volume.

Question 53: When using AWS DMS to migrate data, what is the purpose of a replication instance?

It converts the database schema to the target format
It monitors the migration and sends CloudWatch alerts
It provides the compute resources to run replication tasks (Correct answer)
It stores the migrated data permanently

Correct answer: It provides the compute resources to run replication tasks

A DMS replication instance is an EC2 instance that hosts the replication engine and performs the actual data movement between source and target.

Question 54: What is the purpose of a preheat treatment applied before welding high-carbon or alloy steels?

To increase hardness of the weld zone
To improve the appearance of the finished weld
To eliminate the need for post-weld heat treatment
To reduce the cooling rate and minimize hydrogen cracking (Correct answer)

Correct answer: To reduce the cooling rate and minimize hydrogen cracking

Preheat slows the cooling rate of the weld and heat-affected zone, reducing the risk of hydrogen-induced cracking and martensite formation.

Question 55: Which AWS service provides a hierarchical structure to centrally manage multiple AWS accounts, apply governance policies, and consolidate billing?

AWS Config
AWS IAM Identity Center
AWS Organizations (Correct answer)
AWS Control Tower

Correct answer: AWS Organizations

AWS Organizations lets you group accounts into organizational units (OUs) and apply Service Control Policies for centralized governance.

Question 56: A team wants to reduce the cost of storing Docker images used in their CodePipeline deployments. What is the most cost-effective approach?

Compress all Docker images before pushing to ECR
Configure ECR Lifecycle Policies to delete untagged and old images automatically (Correct answer)
Use Docker Hub instead of ECR for all images
Store all images in S3 instead of ECR

Correct answer: Configure ECR Lifecycle Policies to delete untagged and old images automatically

ECR Lifecycle Policies automatically clean up untagged images and old image versions, reducing the total GB stored and lowering ECR storage costs.

Question 57: A solutions architect is designing a read-heavy application that uses an Amazon RDS database. The primary goal is to improve read performance and offload queries from the primary database instance. Which RDS feature is the most appropriate solution to meet this requirement?

Multi-AZ Deployments
Automated Backups
Read Replicas (Correct answer)
Database Snapshots

Correct answer: Read Replicas

Read Replicas are specifically designed for read scaling. They are asynchronous copies of the primary database instance that can serve read traffic, thereby reducing the load on the primary instance and improving overall read performance for the application.

Question 58: Which ElastiCache feature allows read traffic to be distributed across multiple nodes in a Redis cluster for horizontal read scaling?

ElastiCache Global Datastore
ElastiCache Redis read replicas within a replication group (Correct answer)
ElastiCache Multi-AZ with automatic failover
ElastiCache Memcached auto-discovery

Correct answer: ElastiCache Redis read replicas within a replication group

A Redis replication group includes a primary node for writes and up to 5 read replicas, allowing clients to distribute reads across replicas.

Question 59: A DevOps team uses AWS CodeDeploy with an Auto Scaling group. During a deployment, CodeDeploy fails on 3 out of 10 instances. What is the default behavior?

CodeDeploy stops the deployment and rolls back all instances based on the configured failure threshold (Correct answer)
Deployment continues on remaining instances and only failed instances are retried
The Auto Scaling group terminates failed instances and launches replacements
CodeDeploy marks the deployment successful if more than 50% of instances succeed

Correct answer: CodeDeploy stops the deployment and rolls back all instances based on the configured failure threshold

CodeDeploy evaluates the failure threshold and if exceeded, triggers an automatic rollback by redeploying the previous revision to all affected instances.

Question 60: An architect needs to implement a multi-region active-passive DR strategy with an RTO of 1 hour and RPO of 15 minutes for an RDS database. Which approach meets these requirements most cost-effectively?

RDS Multi-AZ with automated backups to S3
RDS cross-region read replica with automated snapshots every 15 minutes (Correct answer)
Aurora Global Database with a secondary region
DynamoDB global tables with point-in-time recovery

Correct answer: RDS cross-region read replica with automated snapshots every 15 minutes

A cross-region read replica can be promoted within an hour while 15-minute automated snapshots satisfy the RPO, making it more cost-effective than Aurora Global Database for non-Aurora workloads.

Question 61: What is the purpose of the ground clamp in an arc welding circuit from a safety standpoint?

To regulate current flow and prevent overheating of the electrode
To reduce spatter by stabilizing the arc
To complete the welding circuit and minimize stray current paths that cause shock (Correct answer)
To protect the welding machine from power surges

Correct answer: To complete the welding circuit and minimize stray current paths that cause shock

Proper grounding ensures welding current returns through the intended circuit path, reducing stray currents that could travel through a welder's body or cause fires.

Question 62: Which CloudWatch Logs feature enables near-real-time delivery of log events to Amazon Kinesis Data Streams or Lambda?

Subscription Filters (Correct answer)
Metric Filters
Log Insights
Log Aggregation

Correct answer: Subscription Filters

Subscription filters deliver a real-time feed of log events from a log group to a destination such as Kinesis, Firehose, or Lambda.

Question 63: In SAW, the interpass temperature limit specified in a WPS is critical primarily to:

Prevent flux fines from contaminating the next pass
Control heat input and maintain the required mechanical properties and HAZ characteristics (Correct answer)
Ensure adequate slag removal between passes
Prevent flux from absorbing moisture between passes

Correct answer: Control heat input and maintain the required mechanical properties and HAZ characteristics

Interpass temperature control limits cumulative heat input, which affects grain growth, HAZ width, and mechanical properties such as toughness and strength in the completed weldment.

Question 64: Which AWS service provides centralized storage and automatic rotation of database passwords and API keys for applications?

AWS KMS
AWS Systems Manager Parameter Store
AWS Certificate Manager
AWS Secrets Manager (Correct answer)

Correct answer: AWS Secrets Manager

AWS Secrets Manager stores, rotates, and manages retrieval of secrets like database credentials, with built-in Lambda-based rotation for supported services.

Question 65: A DevOps team wants to receive an alarm notification when average EC2 CPU utilization exceeds 80% for 5 consecutive minutes. Which AWS service should they configure?

AWS Trusted Advisor
AWS Config Rules
AWS CloudTrail
Amazon CloudWatch Alarms (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Amazon CloudWatch Alarms

Amazon CloudWatch Alarms monitor a specified metric over a defined period and trigger actions (SNS notification, Auto Scaling policy, EC2 action) when the metric breaches a threshold for a given number of consecutive periods. CloudTrail audits API calls, Config evaluates compliance, and Trusted Advisor provides general guidance.

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate (SAA-C03)

This exam validates the ability to design and implement distributed systems on AWS, focusing on cost-effective, fault-tolerant, and scalable solutions.

Questions

130 min

Time Limit

72%

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