An application team wants to reduce the load on its origin servers and shorten response times for users repeatedly requesting the same product images. Which characteristic of edge locations makes this possible?
Hard · Choose one
Explanation
Answer: A. Edge locations cache copies of content. When a subsequent request for the same object arrives, CloudFront serves it directly from the edge cache. This shortens the network path for the user and means the origin never sees that request, which lowers origin load and origin data transfer cost.
B. Edge locations cache content objects. They do not replicate databases.
C. Edge locations are part of the content delivery network. Customers do not launch general EC2 instances in them.
D. Edge locations do not change the compute capacity of origin servers; they reduce how often the origin is contacted.
32
Which AWS service lets a developer run code in response to events without provisioning or managing any servers, and charges only for the compute time consumed?
Easy · Choose one
Explanation
Answer: C. AWS Lambda is a serverless compute service. You upload a function, and Lambda runs it in response to events such as an Amazon S3 upload, an Amazon API Gateway request, or an Amazon EventBridge rule. There are no servers to provision, patch, or scale, and billing is based on the number of requests and the duration the code runs at the configured memory size.
A. Amazon EC2 provides virtual servers that the customer must select, launch, patch, scale, and pay for whether or not they are processing work.
B. Elastic Beanstalk automates deployment but still provisions EC2 instances, load balancers, and Auto Scaling groups in the customer's account, which the customer pays for continuously.
D. Running ECS tasks on EC2 launch type means the customer still owns and manages the underlying EC2 container instances.
33
What is the maximum amount of time that a single AWS Lambda function invocation can run before it times out?
Easy · Choose one
Explanation
Answer: B. The maximum configurable Lambda function timeout is 900 seconds, which is 15 minutes. Any workload that needs to run longer than that should be redesigned into smaller steps, orchestrated with AWS Step Functions, or moved to a service such as AWS Batch, Amazon ECS, or Amazon EC2.
A. 5 minutes was an older Lambda limit that was raised. The current maximum is 15 minutes.
C. Lambda cannot be configured to run for an hour. AWS Batch or ECS tasks are appropriate for jobs of that length.
D. 24 hours far exceeds the Lambda limit and describes a long-running batch or container workload instead.
34
Which AWS service provides a fully managed, private registry for storing, managing, and deploying container images?
Easy · Choose one
Explanation
Answer: C. Amazon ECR is a fully managed container image registry. It stores, manages, and deploys container images, integrates with IAM for access control, and works directly with Amazon ECS, Amazon EKS, and AWS Fargate.
A. Amazon ECS is a container orchestration service. It runs and schedules containers, but it pulls the images from a registry such as ECR.
B. Amazon S3 stores objects of any type, but it is not a container registry and does not implement the container image APIs that ECS and EKS expect.
D. Amazon EKS is a managed Kubernetes service for orchestrating containers. Like ECS, it consumes images from a registry rather than storing them.
35
Which AWS service automatically adds or removes Amazon EC2 instances so that an application maintains the capacity it needs as demand changes?
Easy · Choose one
Explanation
Answer: A. Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling maintains a group of instances between a minimum and maximum size and adjusts that number automatically based on scaling policies, schedules, or health checks. It is the mechanism that delivers elasticity for EC2-based workloads and also replaces instances that fail health checks.
B. Amazon CloudWatch collects the metrics and can trigger the alarms that Auto Scaling policies react to, but CloudWatch itself does not launch or terminate instances.
C. Elastic Load Balancing distributes incoming traffic across the instances that exist. It does not create or terminate them.
D. AWS Compute Optimizer analyzes utilization and recommends better-suited resource configurations. It is advisory and does not change capacity automatically.
36
Which AWS service automatically distributes incoming application traffic across multiple targets, such as Amazon EC2 instances located in different Availability Zones?
Easy · Choose one
Explanation
Answer: A. Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) automatically distributes incoming traffic across multiple registered targets in one or more Availability Zones. It performs health checks and stops sending requests to unhealthy targets, which is a core building block for both scalability and high availability.
B. CloudFront is a content delivery network that caches and delivers content from edge locations. It fronts an origin rather than load balancing a fleet of application servers.
C. Direct Connect provides a dedicated private network link between a data center and AWS. It carries traffic; it does not balance it.
D. Route 53 is a DNS service. It can distribute traffic using routing policies, but it resolves names to addresses rather than balancing connections at the network or application layer with health-aware target groups.
37
A small business owner with limited AWS experience wants to launch a simple WordPress site quickly, with compute, storage, and networking bundled together at a predictable fixed monthly price. Which service is designed for this?
Easy · Choose one
Explanation
Answer: C. Amazon Lightsail offers pre-configured application blueprints, including WordPress, packaged into simple plans that bundle a virtual server, SSD storage, data transfer allowance, and a static IP for a fixed, predictable monthly price. It is designed specifically for users who want a simplified experience rather than assembling individual AWS building blocks.
A. AWS Fargate runs containers. The owner would first need to containerize WordPress and define ECS or EKS resources, which is far more complex than required.
B. EC2 gives full control but requires the user to choose an instance type, configure security groups, attach storage, and manage the software stack. Pricing also varies with usage rather than being a flat bundle.
D. AWS Batch runs batch computing jobs. It is not a way to host a continuously available website.
38
A company is migrating a large in-memory analytics database that requires a very high ratio of RAM to vCPU. Which Amazon EC2 instance family is the best starting point?
Intermediate · Choose one
Explanation
Answer: C. Memory optimized instances (for example the R and X families) are designed to deliver fast performance for workloads that process large data sets in memory, such as high-performance relational and in-memory databases, real-time big data analytics, and in-memory caches.
A. Storage optimized instances (I, D, H families) provide high sequential read and write access to very large local data sets and low-latency local NVMe storage, not large amounts of RAM.
B. Accelerated computing instances (P, G, Inf, Trn families) use hardware accelerators such as GPUs for machine learning, graphics, and specialized parallel workloads.
D. Compute optimized instances (C family) offer a high ratio of vCPU to memory and suit batch processing, media transcoding, high-performance web servers, and scientific modeling.
39
A visual effects studio runs nightly rendering jobs that can be stopped and restarted without harm, and it wants the lowest possible Amazon EC2 compute cost. Which purchasing option best fits?
Intermediate · Choose one
Explanation
Answer: D. Spot Instances let you use spare EC2 capacity at discounts of up to 90 percent compared with On-Demand prices. AWS can reclaim the capacity with a two-minute interruption notice, so Spot is intended precisely for fault-tolerant, flexible, interruption-tolerant workloads such as batch rendering, CI builds, and data analysis.
A. Dedicated Hosts are the most expensive option and exist to satisfy licensing or compliance needs for physical server isolation, not to minimize cost.
B. A three-year Reserved Instance offers a deep discount, but it commits the company for three years and is intended for steady-state, always-on workloads rather than intermittent nightly jobs.
C. On-Demand carries no commitment but is the highest per-hour price of the flexible options, so it does not meet the lowest-cost goal.
40
A company has a steady baseline of compute usage but expects to change instance families and move workloads between Regions over the next year. It wants a discount in exchange for a one-year usage commitment while keeping that flexibility. Which purchasing option should it choose?
Intermediate · Choose one
Explanation
Answer: D. Compute Savings Plans commit the customer to a consistent amount of compute usage measured in dollars per hour for a one-year or three-year term, in exchange for savings of up to 66 percent for Compute Savings Plans and up to 72 percent for EC2 Instance Savings Plans. Compute Savings Plans automatically apply regardless of instance family, size, Availability Zone, Region, operating system, or tenancy, and also cover Fargate and Lambda usage.
A. Standard Reserved Instances give the deepest RI discount but lock the customer to a specific instance family and Region, which conflicts with the stated need for flexibility.
B. On-Demand Capacity Reservations reserve capacity in a specific Availability Zone but provide no billing discount on their own.
C. Spot Instances offer no commitment and no guaranteed availability. They can be reclaimed at any time and are unsuitable for a steady baseline.