AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional
Elevate your career with the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional Exam Simulator. Get ready to ace the most popular Professional AWS exam with our realistic practice exams. Assess your readiness, boost your confidence, and ensure your success.
Exam domains
The SAP-C02 questions are grouped into 4 domains divided into 20 tasks.
SAP-C02 example questions
One example question per domain from the SAP-C02 question bank, with the correct answer and its explanation. Sign in to the simulator to answer them with all answer options.
Your company has deployed a multi-tier application in AWS where the web tier is fronted by an AWS Network Load Balancer (NLB). The application has been performing as expected until recently, when users began experiencing intermittent connectivity issues. After reviewing CloudWatch metrics for the EC2 instances and the NLB, no evident issues were found. The instances are healthy and the NLB appears to be configured correctly. However, some users are consistently being disconnected or are facing high latency when trying to access the application. As a Solutions Architect, you need to troubleshoot the problem using AWS tools. What should you do next to identify the cause of the traffic flow issues?
Show answer
CORRECT ANSWEREnable VPC Flow Logs for the network interfaces (ENIs) attached to the NLB to analyze the traffic patterns and identify any discrepancies.
Correct because VPC Flow Logs allow you to capture information about the IP traffic going to and from network interfaces in your VPC. By enabling Flow Logs for the ENIs of the NLB, you can analyze the traffic data to troubleshoot the connectivity and latency issues.
Your company has several AWS accounts that are used by different development teams for various projects. To streamline billing and compliance, you plan to reorganize these accounts into a single organization using AWS Organizations. One of your primary goals is to enforce service control policies (SCPs) to limit the services that each team can use, ensuring adherence to the company's security and compliance standards. You also want to upgrade the services and features within this new setup to the latest ones that comply with your policies. While designing a deployment strategy to meet these business requirements, which of the following steps should you take?
Show answer
CORRECT ANSWERCreate an AWS Organization, migrate the individual accounts into the organization as member accounts, establish an organizational unit (OU) structure that reflects the teams' projects, and apply SCPs at the OU or account level to control available services.
This answer is correct because it precisely outlines the use of AWS Organizations to consolidate multiple accounts under a centrally managed hierarchy, which allows for effective governance and easier implementation of service control policies.
You are working as a Solutions Architect for a tech company that is using AWS infrastructure to run its web applications. The company's applications are packaged and deployed using AWS Elastic Beanstalk due to its ease of use and simplicity for developers unfamiliar with AWS. However, your team is now considering the need for configuring a more sophisticated system of configuration management automation that can handle not only application deployment but also configuration changes, resource provisioning, and software updates across multiple environments. Your responsibility involves ensuring that the system can scale, manage changes with minimal downtime, and improve the overall operational excellence. Which AWS solution would you recommend to enable the necessary level of configuration management automation and integrate seamlessly with AWS Elastic Beanstalk?
Show answer
CORRECT ANSWERAWS OpsWorks
AWS OpsWorks is an application management service that provides an event-driven approach to manage applications and servers. It can be used with AWS Elastic Beanstalk to enable configuration management automation, allowing for consistent deployment and operation of applications while managing resources effectively. It supports Chef and Puppet, which are automation platforms that use code to automate the configuration and management of servers.
As a Solutions Architect at a large enterprise, you have been tasked with completing an application migration assessment regarding the migration of a multi-tier web application to AWS. The application has an authentication system that relies on an on-premises Microsoft Active Directory for user credentials. Part of the migration requires integrating AWS resources with the on-premises Active Directory to maintain user access controls without significant changes to the authentication process. Which of the following IAM configurations should you recommend to meet these requirements?
Show answer
CORRECT ANSWEREstablish an AWS Directory Service AD Connector to the on-premises Active Directory and configure IAM roles that trust the AD identities, allowing for the use of existing user credentials.
AD Connector is a directory gateway with which you can redirect directory requests to your on-premises Microsoft Active Directory without caching any information in the cloud, and it allows your AWS resources to use your existing on-premises user credentials. Configuring IAM roles to trust the AD identities enables the continuation of using existing credentials and access management policies.
Exam mode and practice mode
| Exam mode | Practice mode | |
|---|---|---|
| Questions count | 75 | 1 - 75 |
| Time limit | 180 minutes | Optional, 10 - 300 minutes |
| Exam scope | 4 domains with the official questions ratio | Selected domains with the official questions ratio |
| Correct answers | After exam submission | After exam submission or after each answer |
| Question types | Mix of single and multiple correct answers | Single, multiple or both |
| Question hints | Never | Optional |
| Question domain | Revealed after exam submission | Revealed after submission or during the exam |
| Scoring | 15 of 75 questions do not count towards the result | Official AWS method or mathematical mean |
See all simulator features on the AWS Exam Simulator page.
About the SAP-C02 exam
The AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional (SAP-C02) exam is considered one of the most difficult of all AWS certification exams.
The difficulty of the exam stems from several key factors. First, the breadth and depth of knowledge required are substantial. You must have a deep understanding of a wide range of AWS services, including, but not limited to, compute, storage, databases, networking, security, and application services. Additionally, you need to understand how these services integrate to form scalable, reliable, and cost-effective solutions.
Passing the exam requires a deep understanding of AWS best practices for architectural design. This includes knowledge of security, compliance, and governance as it pertains to AWS architectures. You need to be proficient in defining and designing architectures that adhere to AWS’s Well-Architected Framework, ensuring operational excellence, security, reliability, performance efficiency, and cost optimization.
Second, the exam emphasizes real-world scenarios and complex problem-solving. It tests your ability to design multi-tier applications, evaluate and recommend architectures for performance, security, and cost, and automate processes using AWS services. It demands a strong understanding of AWS architecture principles, service capabilities, and the ability to make trade-offs in design choices.
You must demonstrate your ability to design and deploy dynamically scalable, highly available, fault-tolerant, and reliable applications on AWS. This includes selecting appropriate AWS services to design and deploy applications based on specific requirements, migrating complex multi-tier applications to AWS, and implementing cost-control strategies.
Preparation for the exam requires extensive study. Many candidates spend months preparing, using a variety of resources such as AWS whitepapers, online courses, practice exams, and hands-on labs to gain the necessary knowledge and experience. However, doing practice exams with the AWS Exam Simulator and its premium features like repetitions and custom scope is often sufficient to pass this exam.
Technologies and concepts
Compute
Computing involves the use of computers to process data, execute tasks, and run applications. In the context of cloud computing, this translates to leveraging remote servers hosted on the internet to perform these functions rather than relying on local servers or personal computers. AWS supports this with Amazon EC2 for scalable virtual servers, AWS Lambda for serverless computing that executes code in response to events, Amazon ECS and EKS for managing containerized applications, and AWS Fargate for running containers without managing servers.
Cost management
Cost management involves monitoring, controlling, and optimizing spending on cloud resources. AWS supports this with AWS Cost Explorer for visualizing and analyzing cost and usage over time, AWS Budgets for setting and tracking custom cost and usage budgets, AWS Trusted Advisor for providing recommendations to optimize costs, and AWS Cost and Usage Report for detailed billing information. These services help organizations gain visibility into their spending, identify cost-saving opportunities, and ensure efficient use of resources to control and reduce cloud expenses
Database
Database services in cloud computing provide scalable and managed database solutions for various applications. AWS supports this with Amazon RDS for managed relational databases, Amazon DynamoDB for NoSQL databases, Amazon Aurora for high-performance relational databases compatible with MySQL and PostgreSQL, Amazon Redshift for data warehousing, Amazon Neptune for graph databases, Amazon DocumentDB for MongoDB-compatible document databases, and Amazon Timestream for time series data. These services ensure high availability, scalability, and security, allowing organizations to focus on their applications without managing the underlying database infrastructure, and support diverse data management needs efficiently.
Disaster recovery
Disaster recovery in cloud computing involves preparing for and recovering from unexpected disruptions to ensure business continuity, focusing on minimizing Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO). RPO refers to the maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time, indicating how frequently data backups should occur. RTO refers to the maximum acceptable amount of time to restore services after a disruption. AWS supports this with AWS Backup for centralized backup management, Amazon S3 for durable storage of backup data, Amazon RDS for automated database backups, and AWS Elastic Disaster Recovery for recovering applications on AWS from physical, virtual, or cloud-based infrastructure. These services help organizations achieve low RPOs and RTOs, minimizing data loss and downtime, and ensuring robust and reliable disaster recovery strategies.
Management and governance
Management and governance in cloud computing involve overseeing and controlling cloud resources to ensure compliance, security, and operational efficiency. AWS supports this with AWS CloudTrail for logging and monitoring account activity, AWS Config for tracking and auditing resource configurations, AWS Systems Manager for operational data management and automation, AWS Organizations for centralized management of multiple AWS accounts, and AWS Control Tower for setting up and governing a secure, multi-account AWS environment. These services help organizations maintain visibility, enforce policies, and automate processes, ensuring effective management and governance of their AWS environment.
Microservices and component delivery
Microservices architecture in cloud computing involves designing applications as a collection of loosely coupled, independently deployable services. AWS supports this with Amazon ECS for managing Docker containers, Amazon EKS for orchestrating Kubernetes, AWS Lambda for running serverless functions, Amazon API Gateway for managing APIs, and AWS App Mesh for ensuring service-to-service communication. These services enable scalable, flexible, and resilient microservices architectures, allowing organizations to develop, deploy, and scale components independently, ensuring efficient and reliable component delivery.
Migration and data transfer
Migration and data transfer in cloud involve moving applications, data, and workloads from on-premises or other cloud environments to AWS. AWS supports this with AWS Migration Hub for tracking and managing migrations, AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) for migrating databases with minimal downtime, AWS Server Migration Service (SMS) for migrating on-premises servers, AWS Snowball for transferring large amounts of data, and AWS DataSync for automating data transfer between on-premises storage and AWS. These services enable efficient, secure, and seamless migration and data transfer, helping organizations transition to AWS with minimal disruption.
Networking, connectivity, and content delivery
Networking, connectivity, and content delivery in cloud involve connecting and securing resources across cloud and on-premises environments, and efficiently delivering content to users globally. AWS supports this with Amazon VPC for creating isolated cloud resources, AWS Direct Connect for dedicated network connections, Amazon Route 53 for scalable DNS and traffic management, AWS CloudFront for content delivery with low latency and high transfer speeds, and AWS Transit Gateway for connecting VPCs and on-premises networks. These services ensure high availability, security, and performance, enabling robust networking, reliable connectivity, and efficient content delivery.
Security
Security in cloud computing involves protecting data, applications, and infrastructure while ensuring regulatory compliance, supported by AWS services like IAM, KMS, Shield, WAF, GuardDuty, and CloudTrail, which collectively provide robust security measures for data confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
Serverless
Serverless architecture in cloud computing allows developers to build and run applications without managing infrastructure, supported by AWS services like Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, Step Functions, and S3, enabling automatic scaling, efficient workflows, and cost-effective development while AWS handles infrastructure and maintenance.
Storage
Storage in cloud computing involves secure, efficient data management and access, supported by AWS services like Amazon S3, EBS, EFS, Glacier, and Backup, providing durable, scalable, and flexible solutions for various use cases.
High availability
High availability ensures that systems and applications remain operational with minimal downtime. AWS enhances high availability with services like Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling for dynamic resource management, Amazon RDS Multi-AZ deployments for database redundancy, and Amazon Route 53 for reliable DNS routing. These tools ensure continuous operation, fault tolerance, and quick recovery from failures.
Services on the exam
All 154 AWS services that can appear on the SAP-C02 exam.