Amazon SOA-C02 Practice Exams
Last updated on Oct 23,2026- Exam Code: SOA-C02
- Exam Name: AWS Certified SysOps Administrator - Associate
- Certification Provider: Amazon
- Latest update: Oct 23,2026
A SysOps administrator wants to upload a file that is 1 TB in size from on-premises to an Amazon S3 bucket using multipart uploads.
What should the SysOps administrator do to meet this requirement?
- A . Upload the file using the S3 console.
- B . Use the s3api copy-object command.
- C . Use the s3api put-object command.
- D . Use the s3 cp command.
D
Explanation:
It’s a best practice to use aws s3 commands (such as aws s3 cp) for multipart uploads and downloads, because these aws s3 commands automatically perform multipart uploading and downloading based on the file size. By comparison, aws s3api commands, such as aws s3api create-multipart-upload,
should be used only when aws s3 commands don’t support a specific upload need, such as when the multipart upload involves multiple servers, a multipart upload is manually stopped and resumed later, or when the aws s3 command doesn’t support a required request parameter. https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/s3-multipart-upload-cli/
A SysOps administrator created an Amazon VPC with an IPv6 CIDR block, which requires access to the internet. However, access from the internet towards the VPC is prohibited. After adding and configuring the required components to the VPC. the administrator is unable to connect to any of the domains that reside on the internet.
What additional route destination rule should the administrator add to the route tables?
- A . Route ;:/0 traffic to a NAT gateway
- B . Route ::/0 traffic to an internet gateway
- C . Route 0.0.0.0/0 traffic to an egress-only internet gateway
- D . Route ::/0 traffic to an egress-only internet gateway
D
Explanation:
https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/egress-only-internet-gateway.html
To allow outbound IPv6 traffic from instances in your VPC to the internet, but prevent inbound traffic from the internet, you should use an egress-only internet gateway.
Egress-Only Internet Gateway:
An egress-only internet gateway is a horizontally scaled, redundant, and highly available VPC component that allows outbound communication over IPv6 from instances in your VPC to the internet and prevents the internet from initiating an IPv6 connection with your instances.
Routing Configuration:
Open the Amazon VPC console.
Select the route table associated with your VPC.
Add a route for IPv6 traffic (destination ::/0) to the egress-only internet gateway.
Reference: Egress-Only Internet Gateways
Routing for IPv6 Traffic
A company is deploying a third-party unit testing solution that is delivered as an Amazon EC2 Amazon Machine Image (AMI). All system configuration data is stored in Amazon DynamoDB. The testing results are stored in Amazon S3.
A minimum of three EC2 instances are required to operate the product. The company’s testing team wants to use an additional three EC2 Instances when the Spot Instance prices are at a certain threshold. A SysOps administrator must Implement a highly available solution that provides this functionality.
Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?
- A . Define an Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling group by using a launch configuration. Use the provided AMI In the launch configuration. Configure three On-Demand Instances and three Spot Instances. Configure a maximum Spot Instance price In the launch configuration.
- B . Define an Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling group by using a launch template. Use the provided AMI in the launch template. Configure three On-Demand Instances and three Spot Instances. Configure a maximum Spot Instance price In the launch template.
- C . Define two Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling groups by using launch configurations. Use the provided AMI in the launch configurations. Configure three On-Demand Instances for one Auto Scaling group. Configure three Spot Instances for the other Auto Scaling group. Configure a maximum Spot Instance price in the launch configuration for the Auto Scaling group that has Spot Instances.
- D . Define two Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling groups by using launch templates. Use the provided AMI in the launch templates. Configure three On-Demand Instances for one Auto Scaling group. Configure three Spot Instances for the other Auto Scaling group. Configure a maximum Spot Instance price in the launch template for the Auto Scaling group that has Spot Instances.
B
Explanation:
To implement a highly available solution that provides the functionality to use a minimum of three On-Demand instances and three Spot instances when prices are at a certain threshold, defining an Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling group using a launch template is the most suitable solution. This approach minimizes operational overhead by consolidating configuration and management tasks.
Define a Launch Template:
Use the provided AMI in the launch template.
Configure the instance type, key pair, security groups, and other necessary parameters.
Create an Auto Scaling Group:
Use the launch template for the Auto Scaling group.
Specify a desired capacity of three On-Demand instances.
Configure the Auto Scaling group to use mixed instances policies, which allow you to specify a combination of On-Demand and Spot instances.
Set the maximum price for Spot instances in the launch template to ensure that Spot instances are used only when their prices are below the specified threshold.
Configuration Steps:
Open the EC2 console and navigate to "Launch Templates."
Create a new launch template with the necessary configurations.
Navigate to "Auto Scaling Groups" and create a new Auto Scaling group using the launch template.
Configure the desired capacity, minimum capacity, and maximum capacity.
Under "Advanced Options," specify the mixed instances policy and set the maximum price for Spot instances.
Reference: Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling Launch Templates
Auto Scaling Mixed Instances Policies
A SysOps administrator needs to ensure that an Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL DB instance has available backups The DB instance has automated backups turned on with a backup retention period of 7 days. However, no automated backups for the DB instance have been created in the past month.
What could be the cause of the lack of automated backups?
- A . The Amazon S3 bucket that stores the backups is full
- B . The DB instance is in the STORAGE_FULL state
- C . The DB instance is not configured for Multi-AZ.
- D . The backup retention period must be 30 days.
B
Explanation:
STORAGE_FULL State:
When an RDS instance is in the STORAGE_FULL state, automated backups cannot be performed because there is insufficient storage available.
Steps to Resolve:
Go to the AWS Management Console.
Navigate to RDS and select the DB instance.
Check the storage metrics to confirm the STORAGE_FULL state.
Increase the allocated storage for the DB instance to provide sufficient space for automated backups.
Reference: Amazon RDS DB Instance Status
A company uses an Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) file system to share files across many Linux Amazon EC2 instances. A SysOps administrator notices that the file system’s PercentIOLimit metric is consistently at 100% for 15 minutes or longer. The SysOps administrator also notices that the application that reads and writes to that file system is performing poorly. They application requires high throughput and IOPS while accessing the file system.
What should the SysOps administrator do to remediate the consistently high PercentIOLimit metric?
- A . Create a new EFS file system that uses Max I/O performance mode. Use AWS DataSync to migrate data to the new EFS file system.
- B . Create an EFS lifecycle policy to transition future files to the Infrequent Access (IA) storage class to improve performance. Use AWS DataSync to migrate existing data to IA storage.
- C . Modify the existing EFS file system and activate Max I/O performance mode.
- D . Modify the existing EFS file system and activate Provisioned Throughput mode.
A
Explanation:
To support a wide variety of cloud storage workloads, Amazon EFS offers two performance modes, General Purpose mode and Max I/O mode. You choose a file system’s performance mode when you create it, and it cannot be changed. If the PercentIOLimit percentage returned was at or near 100 percent for a significant amount of time during the test, your application should use the Max I/O performance mode. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/efs/latest/ug/performance.html
A development team created and deployed a new AWS Lambda function 15 minutes ago. Although the function was invoked many times. Amazon CloudWatch Logs are not showing any log messages.
What is one cause of this?
- A . The developers did not enable log messages for this Lambda function.
- B . The Lambda function’s role does not include permissions to create CloudWatch Logs items.
- C . The Lambda function raises an exception before the first log statement has been reached.
- D . The Lambda functions creates local log files that have to be shipped to CloudWatch Logs first before becoming visible.
B
Explanation:
If AWS Lambda function logs are not appearing in Amazon CloudWatch, it is typically due to insufficient permissions:
IAM Role Permissions: The execution role assigned to the Lambda function must have the necessary permissions to interact with CloudWatch Logs. This includes actions like logs:CreateLogGroup, logs:CreateLogStream, and logs:PutLogEvents.
Check and Update Role: Verify that the IAM role used by the Lambda function includes a policy granting these permissions. If not, update the role to include these permissions.
Log Group and Stream: With the appropriate permissions, the Lambda function will be able to create or use a log group and stream in CloudWatch Logs and publish log messages accordingly.
Ensuring the Lambda function has the correct permissions is essential for diagnostics and monitoring, allowing log data to be captured and reviewed in CloudWatch Logs.
A company that uses AWS Organizations recently implemented AWS Control Tower The company now needs to centralize identity management A SysOps administrator must federate AWS 1AM Identity Center with an external SAML 2.0 identity provider (IdP) to centrally manage access to all the company’s accounts and cloud applications
Which prerequisites must the SysOps administrator have so that the SysOps administrator can connect to the external IdP? (Select TWO.)
- A . A copy of the 1AM Identity Center SAML metadata
- B . The IdP metadata, including the public X.509 certificate
- C . The IP address of the IdP
- D . Root access to the management account
- E . Administrative permissions to the member accounts of the organization
AB
Explanation:
IAM Identity Center SAML Metadata:
This metadata is required to establish the trust relationship between AWS IAM Identity Center and the external SAML 2.0 identity provider.
Steps:
Download the IAM Identity Center SAML metadata from the AWS Management Console.
Provide this metadata to the external IdP.
IdP Metadata:
The metadata from the IdP, including the public X.509 certificate, is needed to configure the trust relationship.
Steps:
Obtain the IdP metadata, which includes the entity ID, endpoints, and X.509 certificate.
Configure the IAM Identity Center with this information.
Reference: Configuring SAML 2.0 Federation with AWS IAM Identity Center
A Sysops administrator has created an Amazon EC2 instance using an AWS CloudFormation template in the us-east-I Region. The administrator finds that this template has failed to create an EC2 instance in the us-west-2 Region.
What is one cause for this failure?
- A . Resource tags defined in the CloudFormation template are specific to the us-east-I Region.
- B . The Amazon Machine Image (AMI) ID referenced in the CloudFormation template could not be found in the us-west-2 Region.
- C . The cfn-init script did not run during resource provisioning in the us-west-2 Region.
- D . The IAM user was not created in the specified Region.
B
Explanation:
One possible cause for the failure of the CloudFormation template to create an EC2 instance in the
us-west-2 Region is that the Amazon Machine Image (AMI) ID referenced in the template could not be found in the us-west-2 Region. This could be due to the fact that the AMI is not available in that region, or the credentials used to access the AMI were not configured properly. The other options (resource tags defined in the CloudFormation template are specific to the us-east-I Region, the cfn-init script did not run during resource provisioning in the us-west-2 Region, and the IAM user was not created in the specified Region) are not valid causes for this failure.
A SysOps administrator is reviewing AWS Trusted Advisor recommendations. The SysOps administrator notices that all the application servers for a finance application are listed in the Low Utilization Amazon EC2 Instances check. The application runs on three instances across three Availability Zones. The SysOps administrator must reduce the cost of running the application without affecting the application’s availability or design.
Which solution will meet these requirements?
- A . Reduce the number of application servers.
- B . Apply rightsizing recommendations from AWS Cost Explorer to reduce the instance size.
- C . Provision an Application Load Balancer in front of the instances.
- D . Scale up the instance size of the application servers.
B
Explanation:
To reduce the cost of running the application without affecting availability or design, applying rightsizing recommendations from AWS Cost Explorer to reduce the instance size is the best approach.
Rightsizing Recommendations:
AWS Cost Explorer provides rightsizing recommendations that help you identify underutilized
instances.
By resizing instances to a more appropriate size based on their utilization, you can reduce costs while maintaining performance.
Steps to Implement:
Open the AWS Cost Management console.
Navigate to "Cost Explorer" and select "Rightsizing Recommendations."
Review the recommendations and choose to resize the instances based on their actual usage.
Advantages:
Rightsizing ensures that you are not paying for unused resources while maintaining the necessary capacity and performance for your application.
Reference: AWS Cost Explorer Rightsizing Recommendations
A company is tunning a website on Amazon EC2 instances thai are in an Auto Scaling group When the website traffic increases, additional instances lake several minutes to become available because ot a long-running user data script that installs software A SysOps administrator must decrease the time that is required (or new instances to become available
Which action should the SysOps administrator take to meet this requirement?
- A . Reduce the scaling thresholds so that instances are added before traffic increases
- B . Purchase Reserved Instances to cover 100% of the maximum capacity of the Auto Scaling group
- C . Update the Auto Scaling group to launch instances that have a storage optimized instance type
- D . Use EC2 Image Builder to prepare an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) that has pre-installed software
D
Explanation:
To reduce the time required for new instances to become available in an Auto Scaling group, pre-installing the necessary software in the AMI used by the Auto Scaling group is the most effective solution.
Use EC2 Image Builder:
Utilize EC2 Image Builder to create a custom AMI that includes all the required software and configurations.
This reduces the setup time during instance launch, as the user data script will no longer need to
install the software.
Reference: EC2 Image Builder
Update Auto Scaling Group:
Update the Auto Scaling group to use the new AMI with pre-installed software.
Reference: Auto Scaling Groups
This solution ensures that new instances can handle traffic more quickly, reducing latency during scaling events.