SOA-C03 Online Practice Questions

Explanation:
To analyze and visualize custom statistics such as the p90 latency (90th percentile), a CloudWatch metric must be generated from the log data. The correct method is to create a metric filter that extracts the latency value from each log event and publishes it as a CloudWatch metric. Once the metric is published, percentile statistics (p90, p95, etc.) can be displayed in CloudWatch dashboards or alarms.
AWS documentation states:
“You can use metric filters to extract numerical fields from log events and publish them as metrics in CloudWatch. CloudWatch supports percentile statistics such as p90 and p95 for these metrics.”
Contributor Insights (Option A) is for analyzing frequent contributors, not numeric distributions. Subscription filters (Option C) are used for log streaming, and Application Insights (Option D) provides monitoring of application health but not custom p90 statistics. Hence, Option B is the CloudOps-aligned, minimal-overhead solution for percentile latency monitoring.
References (AWS CloudOps Documents / Study Guide):
• AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer C Associate (SOA-C03) Exam Guide C Domain 1: Monitoring and Logging
• Amazon CloudWatch Logs C Metric Filters
• AWS Well-Architected Framework C Operational Excellence Pillar

Explanation:
An alias record is the recommended Route 53 record type to map domain names (e.g., example.com) to AWS-managed resources such as an Application Load Balancer. Alias records are extension types of A or AAAA records that support AWS resources directly, providing automatic DNS integration and no additional query costs.
AWS documentation states:
“Use alias records to map your domain or subdomain to an AWS resource such as an Application Load Balancer, CloudFront distribution, or S3 website endpoint.”
A and AAAA records are used for static IP addresses, not load balancers. CNAME records cannot be used at the root domain (e.g., example.com). Thus, Option C is correct as it meets CloudOps networking best practices for scalable, managed DNS resolution to ALBs.
References (AWS CloudOps Documents / Study Guide):
• AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer C Associate (SOA-C03) Exam Guide C Domain 5: Networking and Content Delivery
• Amazon Route 53 Developer Guide C Alias Records
• AWS Well-Architected Framework C Reliability and Performance Efficiency Pillars
• Elastic Load Balancing C Integrating with Route 53

Explanation:
High availability requires removing single-AZ risk and eliminating manual recovery. The AWS Reliability best practices state to design for multi-AZ and automatic healing: Auto Scaling “helps maintain application availability and allows you to automatically add or remove EC2 instances” (AWS Auto Scaling User Guide). The Reliability Pillar recommends to “distribute workloads across multiple Availability Zones” and to “automate recovery from failure” (AWS Well-Architected Framework C Reliability Pillar). Attaching the Auto Scaling group to an ALB target group enables health-based replacement: instances failing load balancer health checks are replaced and traffic is routed only to healthy targets. Using an AMI in a launch template ensures consistent, repeatable instance configuration (AWS EC2 Launch Templates).
Options A and C keep all instances in a single Availability Zone and rely on manual or ad-hoc restarts, which do not meet high-availability or resiliency goals.
Option B only scales vertically and adds a restart rule; it neither removes the single-AZ failure domain nor provides automated replacement. Therefore, creating a multi-AZ EC2 Auto Scaling group with a launch template and attaching it to the ALB target group (Option D) is the CloudOps-aligned solution for resilience and business continuity.
References (AWS CloudOps Documents / Study Guide):
• AWS Certified CloudOps Engineer C Associate (SOA-C03) Exam Guide: Domain 2 C Reliability and Business Continuity
• AWS Well-Architected Framework C Reliability Pillar
• Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling User Guide C Health checks and replacement
• Elastic Load Balancing User Guide C Target group health checks and ALB integration
• Amazon EC2 Launch Templates C Reproducible instance configuration

Explanation:
As documented in AWS Cloud Operations and Database Recovery, Aurora Backtrack allows you to rewind the existing database cluster to a chosen point in time without creating a new cluster. This feature supports fine-grained rollback for accidental data changes, making it ideal for scenarios like table deletions or logical corruption.
Backtracking maintains continuous transaction logs and permits rewinding within a configurable window (up to 72 hours). It does not require creating a new cluster or endpoint, and it preserves the same production environment, fulfilling the operational requirement for in-place recovery.
In contrast, Point-in-Time Recovery (Option D) always creates a new cluster, while replica promotion (Option A) and Lambda restoration (Option B) are unrelated to immediate rollback operations.
Therefore, Option C, using Aurora Backtrack, best meets the requirement for same-cluster restoration and minimal downtime.
Reference: AWS Cloud Operations & Database Management Guide C Section: Using Aurora Backtrack for Fast In-Place Recovery

Explanation:
Per the AWS Cloud Operations, Monitoring, and Automation documentation, the correct workflow for automated operational remediation is:
Amazon CloudWatch Agent is installed on each EC2 instance (Option A) to collect local log data and push it to Amazon CloudWatch Logs.
A CloudWatch Metric Filter (Option C) is then defined to identify specific error strings or patterns within those logs (e.g., “HTTP 5xx” or “Service Unavailable”). When such an event occurs, CloudWatch Alarms are triggered.
Upon alarm activation, Amazon EventBridge rules (Option E) are configured to respond automatically by invoking an AWS Systems Manager Automation runbook, which executes an action to restart the web server process on the affected instance via SSM Agent.
This approach aligns directly with AWS’s recommended CloudOps remediation pattern, known as event-driven automation, which ensures minimal downtime and eliminates manual intervention.
Options involving CloudTrail (B) or SES notifications (D) are incorrect because they are unrelated to
log-based application monitoring and automated remediation workflows.
Reference: AWS Cloud Operations & Systems Manager Guide C Section: Automated Remediation using CloudWatch, EventBridge, and Systems Manager Automation