AWS Solutions Architect Exam Preparation Tips

Sep 29, 2024

AWS Solutions Architect Exam Questions Review

Introduction

  • Discuss previous exam questions for AWS Solutions Architect C03.
  • Focus on scenario-based questions and techniques for effective answering.

Question Approach Strategies

  1. Identify Key Points
    • Mark important details in the question to pinpoint relevant AWS services.
  2. Elimination Technique
    • Eliminate options that do not fit the key points.

Question 1

  • Scenario: Company collects temperature, humidity, and pressure data across continents.
  • Key Points:
    • Real-time data collection
    • Large volume (500 GB per site)
    • High-speed internet connection
    • Aggregate data in a single S3 bucket with minimal operational complexity.
  • Best Option:
    • Use S3 Transfer Acceleration and Multi-Part Uploads.

Question 2

  • Scenario: Analyze log files of an app stored in JSON format in S3.
  • Options Review:
    • Avoid Redshift due to high operational overhead.
    • CloudWatch is not viable for JSON logs in S3.
    • Best Option: Use Amazon Athena for querying.

Question 3

  • Scenario: Limit access to an S3 bucket to users within AWS Organizations.
  • Key Points:
    • Use organizational unit and AWS principal org ID in the S3 bucket policy.
  • Best Option: Add Principal Org ID to the S3 bucket policy.

Question 4

  • Scenario: EC2 instance needs to access S3 without internet.
  • Best Option: Use Gateway Endpoint for S3.

Question 5

  • Scenario: Web application hosted on EC2 instances with EBS volume storing user documents.
  • Issue: Documents are not visible to users.
  • Best Option: Use Amazon EFS for shared storage across instances.

Question 6

  • Scenario: Migrate 70 TB of video files from on-premises to S3, minimizing network bandwidth usage.
  • Best Option: Use AWS Snowball Edge for data transfer.

Question 7

  • Scenario: Application ingests messages with varying loads.
  • Options Review:
    • Use SQS for decoupling and scaling.
    • Best Option: Publish messages to SQS via SNS.

Question 8

  • Scenario: Modernize application for resiliency and scalability.
  • Best Option: Implement a queue with auto-scaling EC2 instances.

Question 9

  • Scenario: SMB file server with lifecycle management needs.
  • Best Option: Use AWS Storage Gateway.

Question 10

  • Scenario: E-commerce site requires FIFO processing for orders.
  • Best Option: Use SQS FIFO Queues.

Question 11

  • Scenario: Minimize credential management overhead for RDS.
  • Best Option: Use AWS Secrets Manager for managing credentials.

Question 12

  • Scenario: Improve performance for static and dynamic data.
  • Best Option: Use CloudFront for caching static content.

Question 13

  • Scenario: Rotate RDS credentials across multiple regions.
  • Best Option: Use AWS Secrets Manager for credential rotation.

Question 14

  • Scenario: EC2 Auto Scaling group needs to handle traffic efficiently.
  • Best Option: Use Amazon RDS with read replicas for scaling.

Question 15

  • Scenario: Protect traffic in a production VPC.
  • Best Option: Implement AWS Network Firewall for inspection.

Question 16

  • Scenario: Reporting solution using S3 and RDS data.
  • Best Option: Use Amazon QuickSight for visualization.

Question 17

  • Scenario: EC2 instances need access to an S3 bucket.
  • Best Option: Use IAM roles for EC2 instances.

Question 18

  • Scenario: Microservice for image processing.
  • Best Option: Use Lambda functions triggered by S3 events.

Question 19

  • Scenario: Traffic inspection via a third-party appliance.
  • Best Option: Use AWS Gateway Load Balancer.

Question 20

  • Scenario: Clone production data to a test environment.
  • Best Option: Use EBS Snapshots for cloning.

Question 21

  • Scenario: One deal a day website needs to handle millions of requests.
  • Best Option: Use S3 for static hosting and CloudFront for distribution.

Question 22

  • Scenario: Store data resilient to availability zone loss.
  • Best Option: Use S3 Intelligent-Tiering for unpredictable access patterns.

Question 23

  • Scenario: Backup files accessed frequently for one month, infrequently after.
  • Best Option: Use an S3 lifecycle policy to transition to Glacier after one month.

Question 24

  • Scenario: EC2 cost increase investigation.
  • Best Option: Use AWS Cost Explorer for analysis.

Question 25

  • Scenario: Improve Lambda function throughput.
  • Best Option: Integrate SQS with Lambda for asynchronous processing.

Question 26

  • Scenario: Ensure S3 buckets are not misconfigured.
  • Best Option: Enable AWS Config for compliance checks.

Question 27

  • Scenario: Periodic access to CloudWatch Dashboard.
  • Best Option: Share CloudWatch Dashboard link to the product manager.

Question 28

  • Scenario: Single sign-on with on-premises Active Directory.
  • Best Option: Enable AWS SSO with a two-way trust.

Question 29

  • Scenario: Route users to the region with the lowest latency.
  • Best Option: Use AWS Global Accelerator to manage traffic.

Question 30

  • Scenario: Reduce RDS testing costs.
  • Best Option: Create snapshots and terminate the DB instance after tests.

Question 31

  • Scenario: Tagging compliance for EC2 and RDS resources.
  • Best Option: Use AWS Config Rules for tag compliance.

Question 32

  • Scenario: Host static website with HTML, CSS, etc.
  • Best Option: Use Amazon S3 for static website hosting.

Question 33

  • Scenario: Handle real-time financial transactions.
  • Best Option: Use DynamoDB with Lambda for processing.

Question 34

  • Scenario: Track configuration and API call history.
  • Best Option: Use AWS Config and CloudTrail together.

Question 35

  • Scenario: Protect against DDoS attacks.
  • Best Option: Use AWS Shield Advanced with ELB.

Question 36

  • Scenario: Encrypt data in S3 using KMS keys.
  • Best Option: Use managed multi-region KMS keys.

Question 37

  • Scenario: Access EC2 instances securely.
  • Best Option: Use AWS Systems Manager Session Manager.

Question 38

  • Scenario: Decrease latency for a static website.
  • Best Option: Use CloudFront for content delivery.

Question 39

  • Scenario: Improve RDS performance for inserts.
  • Best Option: Change storage type to Provisioned IOPS SSD.

Question 40

  • Scenario: Ingest 1 TB of status alerts for analysis.
  • Best Option: Use Kinesis Data Firehose to deliver to S3 with lifecycle policies.

Question 41

  • Scenario: Improve performance of SaaS data integration.
  • Best Option: Use Amazon AppFlow to connect SaaS sources.

Question 42

  • Scenario: Access S3 without transfer charges.
  • Best Option: Use Gateway Endpoint for S3.

Question 43

  • Scenario: Large amount of data needs timely backups.
  • Best Option: Establish AWS Direct Connect for data transfer.

Question 44

  • Scenario: Protect S3 data from accidental deletion.
  • Best Option: Enable versioning and MFA delete on the S3 bucket.

Question 45

  • Scenario: Ensure all data is ingested despite connectivity issues.
  • Best Option: Use SQS between SNS and Lambda for buffering.

Question 46

  • Scenario: Identify and remediate PII in uploads.
  • Best Option: Use Amazon Macie for PII detection and remediation.

Question 47

  • Scenario: EC2 capacity reservation needed.
  • Best Option: Use Capacity Reservations for guaranteed capacity.

Question 48

  • Scenario: Ensure catalog is highly available and durable.
  • Best Option: Move catalog from instance store to Amazon EFS.

Question 49

  • Scenario: Optimize file storage with lifecycle policies.
  • Best Option: Use S3 Intelligent-Tiering with lifecycle policies.

Question 50

  • Scenario: Patch third-party software on EC2 instances.
  • Best Option: Use AWS Systems Manager Run Command for patching.