The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03) exam tests your ability to design distributed systems on AWS. It is one of the most sought-after certifications in the cloud domain.
A company needs to authenticate users based on their corporate credentials without managing user accounts in AWS. What would be the best solution?
AAWS IAM
BAWS Cognito
CSAML Federation
DAWS Directory Service
Explanation
SAML Federation allows authentication against existing corporate credentials, while IAM and Cognito require AWS user management.
Q222
You are configuring a VPC with public and private subnets. What happens if you add a route for 0.0.0.0/0 to a private subnet's route table?
ATraffic routes to the internet.
BTraffic routes to the VPC.
CTraffic drops to zero.
DTraffic requires IGW attachment.
Explanation
Adding this route to a private subnet will have no effect since there is no IGW attached, causing traffic to drop.
Q223
Which service provides notifications based on events in AWS resources?
AAmazon SNS
BAWS Lambda
CAmazon CloudWatch
DAmazon SQS
Explanation
Amazon SNS is specifically designed for sending notifications based on events; the others serve different purposes.
Q224
A company needs to store and analyze log data securely. Which solution should they choose?
AAmazon S3 with Lifecycle Policies
BAWS Redshift for Log Analysis
CAmazon RDS for log storage
DAmazon EFS for file sharing
Explanation
Amazon S3 is best for secure log storage with analysis capabilities using additional services, while the others are not suitable.
Q225
What happens when an EC2 instance is terminated?
AData on local storage persists
BElastic IP is retained automatically
CInstance state changes to stopped
DInstance cannot be restarted
Explanation
Terminated instances cannot be restarted; the other options suggest incorrect retention or state behavior.
Q226
Which AWS service allows for event-driven computing?
AAWS Lambda
BAmazon EC2
CAmazon RDS
DAWS CloudFormation
Explanation
AWS Lambda executes code in response to events; EC2 and RDS are compute and database services, respectively, while CloudFormation is for resource management.
Q227
A company needs a cost-effective solution for long-term storage of data that is infrequently accessed. Which service should they use?
AAmazon S3 Standard
BAmazon S3 Glacier
CAmazon EBS
DAWS Backup
Explanation
S3 Glacier is optimized for infrequent access at lower cost; S3 Standard is for frequently accessed data, EBS is for block storage, and AWS Backup is for backup management.
Q228
What happens when an IAM user's permissions do not explicitly allow an action?
AAction is allowed by default
BAction is denied by default
CUser is logged out
DPermissions are inherited from the group
Explanation
By default, IAM denies actions that are not explicitly permitted; options A and D are incorrect as IAM does not allow by default and has no automatic logout, respectively.
Q229
Which service allows you to run code without provisioning servers?
AAWS Lambda
BAmazon EC2
CAWS Elastic Beanstalk
DAmazon RDS
Explanation
AWS Lambda runs code in response to events without server management, whereas the others require server provisioning or management.
Q230
A company needs to enforce multi-factor authentication for IAM users. What should they do?
AEnable AWS CloudTrail
BUse IAM policies only
CImplement Virtual MFA devices
DIncrease IAM user permissions
Explanation
Implementing Virtual MFA devices enforces multi-factor authentication, unlike the other options which don’t enforce MFA directly.