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

Question 1: A CloudFormation template needs to accept different instance types for dev vs. prod environments. Which CloudFormation feature enables this without duplicating templates?

CloudFormation Conditions with Fn::If
CloudFormation Outputs
CloudFormation Parameters (Correct answer)
CloudFormation Mappings with FindInMap

Correct answer: CloudFormation Parameters

CloudFormation Parameters allow users to pass in custom values at stack creation or update time, making a single template adaptable to multiple environments.

Question 2: Which feature of Amazon EventBridge allows you to replay archived events through an event bus to re-process them with updated Lambda consumers?

Event Archives
Event Replay (Correct answer)
Schema Registry rollback
Dead Letter Queue requeue

Correct answer: Event Replay

EventBridge Event Replay lets you replay archived events from a specific time window through a bus, enabling re-processing without republishing.

Question 3: What is the maximum session duration that can be configured for an IAM role assumed via the console?

4 hours
12 hours (Correct answer)
36 hours
1 hour

Correct answer: 12 hours

IAM roles can be configured with a maximum session duration of up to 12 hours for console sessions and role assumptions.

Question 4: What is the main advantage of electroslag welding (ESW) compared to conventional arc welding processes for thick plate joints?

ESW can complete a thick vertical joint in a single pass, significantly increasing productivity (Correct answer)
ESW produces lower heat input, minimizing distortion on thick sections
ESW requires no power source since the reaction is exothermic
ESW operates without any flux or slag, giving a cleaner weld

Correct answer: ESW can complete a thick vertical joint in a single pass, significantly increasing productivity

Electroslag welding is capable of joining very thick plates (75mm+) in a single vertical pass, dramatically reducing welding time compared to multi-pass arc processes.

Question 5: A bucket policy must allow cross-account access to objects for a specific AWS account. Which Principal format is correct?

Principal: {AWS: 'arn:aws:iam::123456789012:root'} (Correct answer)
Principal: {Service: 'account-123456789012.amazonaws.com'}
Principal: '*' with Condition AccountId
Principal: {Federated: '123456789012'}

Correct answer: Principal: {AWS: 'arn:aws:iam::123456789012:root'}

Cross-account access is granted by specifying the external account's root ARN (arn:aws:iam::ACCOUNT_ID:root) in the bucket policy Principal.

Question 6: During a CodeDeploy in-place deployment to EC2 instances, which lifecycle hook runs AFTER the application files are installed but BEFORE traffic is re-routed to the instance?

AfterInstall (Correct answer)
ApplicationStart
ValidateService
BeforeInstall

Correct answer: AfterInstall

AfterInstall runs immediately after the application files are copied, allowing you to configure permissions or run post-install scripts before the application starts.

Question 7: When installing a welding fume extraction system, what is the recommended capture velocity at the hood opening?

500-1000 FPM
200-500 FPM (Correct answer)
50-100 FPM
100-200 FPM

Correct answer: 200-500 FPM

ACGIH recommends a capture velocity of 200-500 feet per minute at the hood opening to effectively capture welding fumes before they enter the welder's breathing zone.

Question 8: A team uses AWS CloudTrail to audit all API calls made by their CI/CD pipeline. CloudTrail data event logging is generating significant S3 costs. What is the best cost reduction strategy?

Filter CloudTrail data events to log only S3 and Lambda events for specific pipeline-related buckets and functions (Correct answer)
Use a single trail for all regions instead of per-region trails
Disable CloudTrail data events entirely
Switch to CloudTrail Insights instead of data events

Correct answer: Filter CloudTrail data events to log only S3 and Lambda events for specific pipeline-related buckets and functions

CloudTrail data events are charged per 100,000 events; scoping data event logging to specific resources rather than all S3 buckets or Lambda functions dramatically reduces event volume and cost.

Question 9: A team's CodeDeploy blue/green deployments leave old Auto Scaling Groups running for 1 hour after successful deployment. What change reduces unnecessary costs?

Reduce the termination wait time for the original environment in the deployment group (Correct answer)
Use Lambda deployments instead of EC2
Disable deployment rollback to avoid keeping old instances
Switch from blue/green to in-place deployments

Correct answer: Reduce the termination wait time for the original environment in the deployment group

The original environment termination wait time in a blue/green deployment controls how long old instances stay running; reducing it minimizes the overlap period where both environments incur costs.

Question 10: Which CloudWatch metric is NOT available by default and requires installing the CloudWatch Agent on an EC2 instance?

CPUUtilization
MemoryUtilization (Correct answer)
DiskReadOps
NetworkIn

Correct answer: MemoryUtilization

MemoryUtilization is an OS-level metric not exposed by the EC2 hypervisor, so it requires the CloudWatch Agent to collect and publish.

Question 11: An S3 bucket policy uses the condition key 's3:prefix' to restrict access. What does this condition evaluate?

The KMS key prefix used for encryption
The AWS account prefix of the requester
The beginning of the object key name in the request (Correct answer)
The storage class prefix assigned to the object

Correct answer: The beginning of the object key name in the request

The s3:prefix condition key matches the leading characters of the requested object key, allowing path-based access control within a bucket.

Question 12: An architect wants to automatically remediate non-compliant AWS Config rules (e.g., S3 buckets with public access enabled). Which feature enables this?

CloudWatch Events with a Lambda remediation function triggered by Config
AWS Config conformance packs
AWS Config remediation actions using SSM Automation documents (Correct answer)
AWS Trusted Advisor checks with auto-remediation

Correct answer: AWS Config remediation actions using SSM Automation documents

AWS Config supports automatic remediation by associating SSM Automation documents directly with config rules, which execute when a resource becomes non-compliant.

Question 13: Which approach best demonstrates mastery of cost optimization in AWS DevOps practice?

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

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 14: How does the AWS DevOps body of knowledge relate to daily professional practice?

It only applies during certification exams
It is relevant only for academic research
It is theoretical and has limited practical application
It provides the foundational framework that guides decision-making and standard practices (Correct answer)

Correct answer: It provides the foundational framework that guides decision-making and standard practices

The body of knowledge provides the foundational framework of principles, standards, and best practices that professionals use to guide their daily decision-making, ensure consistent quality, and maintain alignment with industry standards.

Question 15: 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?

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

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 16: A company wants to restrict outbound internet traffic from EC2 instances in a private subnet while allowing instances to initiate connections to the internet. Which solution should be used?

NAT Gateway placed in a public subnet (Correct answer)
VPC Endpoint
Egress-Only Internet Gateway
Internet Gateway

Correct answer: NAT Gateway placed in a public subnet

A NAT Gateway in a public subnet allows private subnet instances to initiate outbound connections while preventing inbound connections from the internet.

Question 17: 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
DynamoDB global tables with point-in-time recovery
Aurora Global Database with a secondary region
RDS cross-region read replica with automated snapshots every 15 minutes (Correct answer)

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 18: What does the AWS Free Tier allow new customers to do?

Avoid all data transfer charges permanently
Get free Enterprise Support
Use all AWS services unlimited forever
Try certain services free within limits for a period (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Try certain services free within limits for a period

The AWS Free Tier lets customers explore eligible services for free within specified usage limits.

Question 19: Which destructive test is required by AWS D1.1 to qualify a welder using the groove weld plate test in the 3G position?

Hardness traverse tests
Charpy V-notch impact tests
Macro-etch and tension tests
Face and root guided bend tests (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Face and root guided bend tests

AWS D1.1 requires face and root bend test specimens (or side bends for material ≥9.5 mm thick) to qualify groove weld performance tests.

Question 20: A company stores infrequently accessed compliance logs that must be retrievable within 12 hours. Which S3 storage class minimizes cost while meeting this requirement?

S3 Standard-IA
S3 One Zone-IA
S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval (Correct answer)
S3 Glacier Deep Archive

Correct answer: S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval

S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval offers bulk retrieval within 5-12 hours at the lowest cost for archives needing occasional access.

Question 21: Which feature of Lambda allows a DevOps team to keep a function pre-initialized to eliminate cold start latency?

Lambda layers
Reserved concurrency
Enhanced monitoring
Provisioned concurrency (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Provisioned concurrency

Provisioned concurrency initializes a specified number of execution environments so they are ready to respond immediately without cold starts.

Question 22: When using AWS CloudFormation StackSets, what is a 'stack instance'?

A CloudFormation template version stored in S3
A running EC2 instance created by a CloudFormation stack
A nested stack within a parent CloudFormation stack
A reference to a stack in a specific account and region (Correct answer)

Correct answer: A reference to a stack in a specific account and region

A stack instance is a reference to a stack that has been or will be deployed in a specific AWS account and region as part of a StackSet.

Question 23: A DevOps team wants to reduce costs on their multi-region deployment pipeline that replicates artifacts across 5 regions. Which strategy is most cost-effective?

Use CloudFront to serve artifacts to all regions from a single origin
Store all artifacts in S3 and replicate using S3 Cross-Region Replication
Create separate CodePipeline instances in each region
Deploy artifacts on-demand to each region only when a deployment is triggered in that region (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Deploy artifacts on-demand to each region only when a deployment is triggered in that region

Deploying artifacts to regions only when deployments are triggered avoids paying for pre-replication data transfer and storage in regions that may not be actively used.

Question 24: A company uses AWS Systems Manager Run Command to patch EC2 instances. How should the DevOps team structure patching to maintain high availability?

Terminate and relaunch instances from a patched AMI all at once
Use Patch Manager with maintenance window rate controls to patch a percentage of instances at a time (Correct answer)
Manually patch one instance and create a new AMI from it
Patch all instances simultaneously during a maintenance window

Correct answer: Use Patch Manager with maintenance window rate controls to patch a percentage of instances at a time

Patch Manager's rate controls allow patching a defined percentage or count of targets concurrently, maintaining service capacity during patching.

Question 25: A company wants to implement database caching to reduce RDS load. DAX is not suitable because the application uses complex SQL joins. Which service should be used?

Amazon DynamoDB
Amazon Aurora Global Database
Amazon ElastiCache for Redis (Correct answer)
Amazon Redshift

Correct answer: Amazon ElastiCache for Redis

Amazon ElastiCache for Redis can cache query results from relational databases, reducing load on RDS for complex SQL workloads.

Question 26: What is required to automatically transition objects from S3 Standard to Glacier after 90 days?

Cross-region replication
A bucket policy
An IAM role
A lifecycle configuration rule (Correct answer)

Correct answer: A lifecycle configuration rule

Lifecycle rules define automatic transitions between storage classes based on object age.

Question 27: An application uses AWS Lambda and needs to share common dependencies across multiple functions. What is the best approach?

Package dependencies into each function separately
Use an EC2 instance to host shared libraries
Store dependencies in S3 and download at runtime
Use Lambda Layers to share code and libraries (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Use Lambda Layers to share code and libraries

Lambda Layers allow you to package and share libraries, custom runtimes, or other dependencies across multiple Lambda functions.

Question 28: A DevOps team uses Systems Manager Automation documents to run remediation tasks across hundreds of accounts. Which approach minimizes SSM Automation costs?

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

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 29: Which IAM report lists all IAM users in an account along with the status of their passwords, access keys, and MFA devices?

IAM Access Advisor
IAM Credentials Report (Correct answer)
AWS Trusted Advisor IAM Check
IAM Policy Summary

Correct answer: IAM Credentials Report

The IAM Credentials Report is a downloadable CSV that shows the status of credentials for all IAM users, useful for security audits.

Question 30: What is the most important foundational concept in Compute and Storage Services?

Understanding core principles and their practical application in Compute and Storage Services (Correct answer)
Ignoring established guidelines
Memorizing all rules without understanding
Only following instructions from supervisors

Correct answer: Understanding core principles and their practical application in Compute and Storage Services

Core principles provide the foundation for all decision-making and practice in Compute and Storage Services.

Question 31: Which approach best demonstrates mastery of high availability in AWS DevOps practice?

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

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 32: What is the effect of phosphorus on the weldability of carbon steel?

Improves weld metal ductility and toughness
Increases susceptibility to cold cracking and reduces notch toughness (Correct answer)
Reduces carbon equivalent, improving weldability
Acts as a deoxidizer, reducing porosity in the weld

Correct answer: Increases susceptibility to cold cracking and reduces notch toughness

Phosphorus segregates to grain boundaries and solidification fronts, causing cold cracking and severely reducing impact toughness in weld metal.

Question 33: An application requires that user sessions persist even when requests are routed to different EC2 instances. Which solution maintains high availability without sticky sessions?

Enable ALB sticky sessions with duration-based cookies
Store session data in Amazon ElastiCache Redis (Correct answer)
Use NLB instead of ALB for session persistence
Deploy instances in a single AZ to simplify routing

Correct answer: Store session data in Amazon ElastiCache Redis

Storing sessions in ElastiCache Redis externalizes state so any instance can serve any request, enabling true stateless scaling.

Question 34: What is the primary purpose of post-weld heat treatment (PWHT) on carbon steel weldments?

Relieve residual stresses and temper the HAZ (Correct answer)
Increase tensile strength
Increase carbon content in the weld
Harden the weld metal

Correct answer: Relieve residual stresses and temper the HAZ

PWHT relieves residual stresses induced during welding and tempers hard microstructures in the heat-affected zone to improve toughness.

Question 35: Which feature prevents S3 objects from being deleted or overwritten for a fixed period to meet compliance needs?

S3 Object Lock (Correct answer)
S3 Lifecycle policy
S3 ACL
S3 Versioning

Correct answer: S3 Object Lock

S3 Object Lock enforces WORM protection, preventing deletion or change for a defined retention period.

Question 36: Which of the following Amazon EC2 instance purchasing choices allows you to leverage your existing server-bound software licenses to help you meet compliance requirements and save money?

Dedicated Instance
Dedicated Host (Correct answer)
On-Demand Instance
Reserved Instance

Correct answer: Dedicated Host

A Dedicated Host is a physical EC2 server dedicated for your use, allowing you to bring your existing server-bound software licenses (like Windows Server or SQL Server) to AWS. This helps meet compliance requirements and can save money by leveraging existing investments. Other instance types like On-Demand or Reserved Instances typically use shared tenancy or don't offer the same license portability.

Question 37: A solutions architect needs messages to be delivered in strict order to multiple SQS consumers. Which combination achieves this?

Standard SQS queue with multiple consumers using long polling
FIFO SQS queue with a single consumer group per message group ID (Correct answer)
Standard SQS queue with a DLQ for ordering failures
FIFO SQS queue with content-based deduplication and multiple consumers reading the same message group

Correct answer: FIFO SQS queue with a single consumer group per message group ID

Within a FIFO queue, messages with the same MessageGroupId are delivered in order, and only one consumer processes messages from a given group at a time.

Question 38: An Aurora Global Database has a primary cluster in us-east-1 and a secondary in eu-west-1. During a regional disaster drill, the team promotes the secondary to primary. After the primary region recovers, the team wants to restore the original topology. Which sequence correctly restores the original primary without data loss?

Detach the recovered us-east-1 cluster, add it back as a secondary to the promoted eu-west-1 primary, allow replication to catch up, then perform a managed planned failover back to us-east-1. (Correct answer)
Re-attach the recovered us-east-1 cluster directly as primary; Aurora Global Database supports dual-primary promotion natively.
Perform a switchover using AWS DMS to replicate from eu-west-1 back to us-east-1, then swap Route 53 records.
Delete the us-east-1 cluster entirely, restore it from the latest automated snapshot, and re-attach it as a secondary to eu-west-1.

Correct answer: Detach the recovered us-east-1 cluster, add it back as a secondary to the promoted eu-west-1 primary, allow replication to catch up, then perform a managed planned failover back to us-east-1.

After an unplanned failover (promotion), the original primary is detached and becomes a standalone cluster. You must re-add it as a secondary (read replica) to the new global primary, let replication fully synchronize, and then use a managed planned failover to restore the desired topology — all without data loss. Restoring from snapshot introduces an RPO gap, Aurora does not support dual-primary, and DMS is not the correct tool for this topology switch.

Question 39: Which EventBridge (CloudWatch Events) feature enables you to send events from an AWS Lambda function to multiple downstream targets simultaneously?

Event buses with multiple rules (Correct answer)
SNS FIFO topics
Lambda Destinations
SQS fan-out

Correct answer: Event buses with multiple rules

EventBridge rules on an event bus can match a single event and route it to multiple targets concurrently, enabling fan-out patterns.

Question 40: An engineering team needs to test their application's resiliency to EC2 instance failures. Which AWS service enables controlled fault injection experiments?

AWS Systems Manager Run Command with stop-instance document
AWS Config with remediation actions
CloudWatch Synthetics canaries with failure simulation
AWS Fault Injection Simulator (FIS) with EC2 instance stop/terminate actions (Correct answer)

Correct answer: AWS Fault Injection Simulator (FIS) with EC2 instance stop/terminate actions

AWS FIS provides controlled chaos engineering experiments including EC2 instance termination, CPU stress, network disruption, and other fault injections with safety guardrails.

Question 41: An Elastic Load Balancer must distribute traffic to EC2 instances across three AZs, but one AZ has significantly fewer instances. Which feature ensures even distribution?

Connection draining
Cross-zone load balancing (Correct answer)
Path-based routing
Sticky sessions

Correct answer: Cross-zone load balancing

Cross-zone load balancing distributes requests evenly across all registered instances in all enabled AZs, regardless of instance count per AZ.

Question 42: In the context of disaster recovery, what does RPO (Recovery Point Objective) define?

The percentage of availability required per year
The maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time (Correct answer)
The time it takes to restore systems after a failure
The minimum number of replicas required

Correct answer: The maximum acceptable amount of data loss measured in time

RPO defines how much data loss is acceptable by specifying the maximum age of the data that must be recovered after a disaster.

Question 43: A solutions architect needs to store session state for a highly available web application. Which DynamoDB feature ensures that reads always reflect the latest write?

DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX)
Eventually consistent reads
Strongly consistent reads (Correct answer)
DynamoDB Streams

Correct answer: Strongly consistent reads

Strongly consistent reads in DynamoDB return the most up-to-date data, reflecting all writes that received a successful response.

Question 44: A DevOps team wants to ensure that every incident automatically creates a timeline of events using CloudTrail and CloudWatch Logs data. Which Incident Manager feature provides this integrated event timeline?

CloudWatch Logs Insights saved query on incident period
Incident Manager timeline with CloudTrail and CloudWatch Logs integration (Correct answer)
EventBridge Archive and Replay for the incident window
Systems Manager OpsCenter related items section

Correct answer: Incident Manager timeline with CloudTrail and CloudWatch Logs integration

AWS Systems Manager Incident Manager's incident timeline automatically aggregates events from CloudTrail and CloudWatch Logs into a chronological view.

Question 45: Which of the following describes the primary difference between vertical and horizontal scaling?

Vertical scaling increases the capacity of a single resource (e.g., CPU, RAM), while horizontal scaling adds more resources (e.g., instances) to a pool. (Correct answer)
Vertical scaling adds more instances to a resource pool, while horizontal scaling increases the size of a single instance.
Vertical scaling provides high availability, while horizontal scaling provides fault tolerance.
Vertical scaling is only applicable to databases, while horizontal scaling is only for web servers.

Correct answer: Vertical scaling increases the capacity of a single resource (e.g., CPU, RAM), while horizontal scaling adds more resources (e.g., instances) to a pool.

Vertical scaling (scaling up) involves increasing the resources of a single instance, such as upgrading to a larger EC2 instance type with more CPU or memory. Horizontal scaling (scaling out) involves adding more instances to a pool of resources, like adding more EC2 instances to an Auto Scaling group.

Question 46: 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?

On-Demand Instances
Spot Instances (Correct answer)
Reserved Instances
Dedicated 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 47: What is the purpose of AWS Key Management Service (KMS)?

Monitors network traffic
Automates infrastructure deployment
Optimizes cloud storage usage
Manages encryption keys for securing data (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Manages encryption keys for securing data

AWS Key Management Service (KMS) is a managed service that makes it easy for you to create and control the encryption keys used to encrypt your data. It integrates with other AWS services to provide encryption for data at rest and in transit. KMS helps you maintain control over your cryptographic keys, enhancing data security and compliance.

Question 48: A company wants to optimize costs for AWS Config rules used to enforce compliance in their CI/CD pipeline. Which configuration reduces Config evaluation costs?

Enable continuous recording for all resource types
Create separate Config rules for each AWS account
Use periodic evaluation mode instead of configuration-change-triggered mode for stable resources (Correct answer)
Enable Config aggregation across all regions

Correct answer: Use periodic evaluation mode instead of configuration-change-triggered mode for stable resources

Periodic evaluation mode reduces the number of Config rule evaluations triggered for resources that change infrequently, lowering the per-evaluation cost.

Question 49: A team uses AWS Step Functions to orchestrate their deployment workflow with many short-lived state transitions. Which Step Functions pricing model minimizes cost for high-frequency, fast-executing workflows?

Standard Workflows with Express Workflow pricing
Synchronous Express Workflows with maximum timeout
Standard Workflows with inline Map states
Express Workflows, which bill per execution duration rather than per state transition (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Express Workflows, which bill per execution duration rather than per state transition

Express Workflows bill based on the number of executions and their duration, making them far cheaper than Standard Workflows for high-volume, short-duration orchestration tasks.

Question 50: Which AWS standard governs the qualification of welding procedure specifications (WPS) for structural steel?

AWS D1.1 (Correct answer)
AWS D1.3
AWS D1.6
AWS B2.1

Correct answer: AWS D1.1

AWS D1.1, Structural Welding Code—Steel, sets the requirements for WPS qualification including required mechanical tests.

Question 51: 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?

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

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 52: For a butt joint in thin sheet metal (under 3/16 inch), which groove configuration is typically used to minimize distortion?

U-groove with a wide root face
Double-V groove with large groove angle
J-groove with a 45° bevel angle
Square groove with a tight root opening (Correct answer)

Correct answer: Square groove with a tight root opening

A square groove joint with minimal root opening is used for thin sheet metal because it requires less filler metal and reduces heat input and distortion.

Question 53: Which condition in an S3 bucket policy restricts uploads so that only objects with a specific tag key-value pair are accepted?

s3:ExistingObjectTag/<key>
aws:ResourceTag/<key>
aws:TagKeys
s3:RequestObjectTag/<key> (Correct answer)

Correct answer: s3:RequestObjectTag/<key>

The s3:RequestObjectTag/<key> condition evaluates tags included in the PutObject request, allowing policies to enforce required tagging at upload time.

Question 54: Which AWS filler metal specification covers carbon steel electrodes for shielded metal arc welding?

AWS A5.18
AWS A5.1 (Correct answer)
AWS A5.20
AWS A5.28

Correct answer: AWS A5.1

AWS A5.1 is the specification for carbon steel electrodes for SMAW (e.g., E6010, E7018 classifications).

Question 55: Which Amazon Aurora scaling feature automatically adds read capacity in response to increasing query load without manual intervention?

Aurora Serverless v2
Aurora Auto Scaling for replicas (Correct answer)
Aurora Global Database promotion
Aurora Multi-Master

Correct answer: Aurora Auto Scaling for replicas

Aurora Auto Scaling monitors CloudWatch metrics and automatically adds or removes Aurora Replicas based on CPU or connection thresholds.

Question 56: Which AWS tool helps analyze and reduce cloud costs?

AWS CloudTrail
AWS Cost Explorer (Correct answer)
AWS Config
AWS Inspector

Correct answer: AWS Cost Explorer

AWS Cost Explorer is a tool that allows you to visualize, understand, and manage your AWS costs and usage over time. It provides customizable reports and forecasts to help you analyze your spending patterns, identify cost-saving opportunities, and plan future budgets. By offering detailed insights, Cost Explorer empowers you to optimize your cloud expenditure.

Question 57: What type of database engine does Amazon Neptune provide?

Relational database
Document database
Graph database (Correct answer)
Time-series database

Correct answer: Graph database

Amazon Neptune is a fully managed graph database service that supports property graph and RDF models, optimized for storing and querying highly connected datasets.

Question 58: In an AWS CodeBuild buildspec.yml, which phase should be used to install operating system packages and language runtimes before the build begins?

build
install (Correct answer)
post_build
pre_build

Correct answer: install

The 'install' phase is specifically designed for installing packages, runtimes, and build tools before any build logic runs.

Question 59: Which AWS service uses machine learning to identify potentially fraudulent activities?

Amazon Fraud Detector (Correct answer)
Amazon Inspector
Amazon Rekognition
Amazon GuardDuty

Correct answer: Amazon Fraud Detector

Amazon Fraud Detector is a fully managed service that uses ML and Amazon's fraud detection expertise to identify potentially fraudulent activities such as online payment fraud.

Question 60: What is the default account-level concurrent execution limit for AWS Lambda per region?

10,000
500
1,000 (Correct answer)
100

Correct answer: 1,000

AWS accounts have a default soft limit of 1,000 concurrent Lambda executions per region, which can be increased by submitting a service limit increase request.

Question 61: What happens if MIG welding contact tips become worn or oversized?

Shielding gas flow increases automatically
The wire develops poor electrical contact, causing erratic arc starts and inconsistent bead quality (Correct answer)
Wire feed speed increases
The polarity reverses

Correct answer: The wire develops poor electrical contact, causing erratic arc starts and inconsistent bead quality

An enlarged contact tip bore creates electrical resistance variations, leading to arc instability and poor fusion.

Question 62: A team runs Selenium-based end-to-end tests in CodeBuild that take 45 minutes each. Which optimization reduces cost without sacrificing coverage?

Run all tests on a single large CodeBuild instance in sequence
Increase the CodeBuild timeout limit to reduce retries
Split the test suite and run shards in parallel across multiple smaller CodeBuild instances (Correct answer)
Replace CodeBuild with AWS Device Farm for all browser tests

Correct answer: Split the test suite and run shards in parallel across multiple smaller CodeBuild instances

Parallelizing test shards across multiple smaller instances reduces total wall-clock time (and sometimes total compute cost) while keeping the same test coverage.

Question 63: 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 3
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 1
Set threshold to 90%, period to 60 seconds, evaluation periods to 15

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 64: 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?

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
Use AWS Config to record API calls and export to S3
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 65: AWS CloudWatch composite alarms can improve high-availability alerting. What is the primary advantage over individual alarms?

Composite alarms can trigger Auto Scaling policies directly
Composite alarms support cross-account metric aggregation
They reduce alarm noise by only alerting when multiple conditions are simultaneously true, indicating a real issue (Correct answer)
They automatically remediate issues using Systems Manager automation

Correct answer: They reduce alarm noise by only alerting when multiple conditions are simultaneously true, indicating a real issue

Composite alarms combine multiple alarms with AND/OR logic, reducing false positives by alerting only when a combination of conditions indicates a genuine incident.

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%

To Pass

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