AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C01) PDF - CertyIQ

Certy IQ Premium exam material Get certification quickly with the CertyIQ Premium exam material. Everything you need to prepare, learn & pass your certification exam easily. Lifetime free updates First attempt guaranteed success. https://www.CertyIQ.com Amazon (AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C01) Total: 1013 Questions Link: https://certyiq.com/papers/amazon/aws-certified-cloud-practitioner Question: 1 CertyIQ A company is planning to run a global marketing application in the AWS Cloud. The application will feature videos that can be viewed by users. The company must ensure that all users can view these videos with low latency. Which AWS service should the company use to meet this requirement? A. AWS Auto Scaling B. Amazon Kinesis Video Streams C. Elastic Load Balancing D. Amazon CloudFront Answer: D Explanation: The correct answer is D. Amazon CloudFront. Here's a detailed justification: The primary requirement is to deliver video content with low latency to a global audience. Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery network (CDN) service that caches content (like videos) at edge locations worldwide. When a user requests a video, CloudFront serves it from the nearest edge location, reducing latency and improving the viewing experience. How CloudFront works: CloudFront works by caching copies of your website content (images, videos, etc.) in geographically distributed data centers called edge locations. When a user accesses your content, CloudFront automatically routes the request to the nearest edge location, ensuring faster delivery. Low latency: By delivering content from edge locations closer to users, CloudFront minimizes the distance data travels, resulting in significantly lower latency compared to serving content from a single origin server. Global reach: CloudFront has a vast network of edge locations around the world, enabling it to efficiently deliver content to users regardless of their geographical location. Scalability: CloudFront automatically scales to handle high traffic volumes, ensuring consistent performance even during peak usage periods. Alternative explanations: AWS Auto Scaling (A): Auto Scaling is used to automatically adjust the number of EC2 instances based on demand. While helpful for scaling backend infrastructure, it doesn't directly address low-latency video delivery to a global audience. Amazon Kinesis Video Streams (B): Kinesis Video Streams is for securely streaming video from sources like cameras to AWS for analytics and processing. It's not designed for delivering pre-recorded video content to end-users. Elastic Load Balancing (C): ELB distributes incoming application traffic across multiple targets, such as EC2 instances, in a single or multiple Availability Zones. While it can improve availability and scalability, it doesn't solve the problem of latency for geographically dispersed users like CloudFront does. In conclusion, Amazon CloudFront is the most suitable service for delivering videos with low latency to a global audience because it caches content at edge locations, bringing the content closer to users and reducing the distance data must travel. Authoritative Links: Amazon CloudFront: AWS official documentation on Amazon CloudFront. What is CloudFront?: CloudFront Developer Guide. Question: 2 CertyIQ Which pillar of the AWS Well-Architected Framework refers to the ability of a system to recover from infrastructure or service disruptions and dynamically acquire computing resources to meet demand? A. Security B. Reliability C. Performance efficiency D. Cost optimization Answer: B Explanation: The correct answer is B. Reliability. Reliability, as a pillar of the AWS Well-Architected Framework, specifically focuses on the ability of a system to recover from failures, meet demand through resource acquisition, and avoid disruptions. It encompasses aspects like fault tolerance, recoverability, and availability. Fault Tolerance: Designing systems that continue to operate even when components fail. Recoverability: The ability to restore a system to its original state quickly after a failure. This includes having robust backup and disaster recovery plans. Availability: Ensuring the system is accessible and operational when needed. Achieving high availability often involves redundancy and automated scaling. Dynamic Resource Acquisition: Automatically scaling resources (like compute instances) up or down in response to changes in demand. Options A, C, and D are incorrect as they address different aspects of the Well-Architected Framework. Security focuses on protecting information and systems; performance efficiency addresses optimal use of computing resources; and cost optimization emphasizes avoiding unnecessary expenses. While all pillars contribute to a well-architected system, the specific characteristic described in the question—recoverability and dynamic resource acquisition—directly aligns with the definition and principles of the Reliability pillar. For instance, using services like Auto Scaling and Elastic Load Balancing directly contributes to both Reliability and Availability. The ability to switch to redundant systems in case of failure is another example of a reliability-focused practice. Further research: AWS Well-Architected Framework: https://aws.amazon.com/well-architected/ AWS Reliability Pillar: https://wa.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/2020-07-02T19-33-21/reliability/rel-01- understand-foundations.en.html Question: 3 CertyIQ Which of the following are benefits of migrating to the AWS Cloud? (Choose two.) A. Operational resilience B. Discounts for products on Amazon.com C. Business agility D. Business excellence E. Increased staff retention Answer: AC Explanation: The correct answer highlights two key advantages of transitioning to the AWS Cloud: operational resilience and business agility. Operational Resilience: Migrating to AWS significantly enhances operational resilience. AWS provides a highly reliable and available infrastructure with built-in redundancy and fault tolerance. Services are designed to withstand failures and automatically recover, minimizing downtime and ensuring business continuity. This stems from AWS's distributed architecture, automated scaling, and robust monitoring capabilities. Businesses can leverage AWS's global network of data centers and availability zones to create geographically diverse deployments, further safeguarding against regional outages. This inherent resilience is a core benefit differentiating cloud services from traditional on-premises infrastructure, where building such robust systems is complex and costly. https://aws.amazon.com/resilience/ Business Agility: AWS Cloud enables business agility by providing on-demand access to a wide range of compute, storage, database, and application services. Companies can quickly provision resources, experiment with new ideas, and scale their infrastructure up or down as needed. This eliminates the need for lengthy procurement cycles and significant upfront capital investments in hardware. Furthermore, AWS offers a vast ecosystem of tools and services that facilitate rapid development, deployment, and innovation. The pay-as- you-go pricing model allows businesses to optimize costs by only paying for the resources they consume. This increased agility empowers organizations to respond more effectively to market changes and gain a competitive advantage. https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/agility/ Options B, D, and E are not directly core benefits of migrating to AWS Cloud. While increased staff retention could be a result of moving to more modern infrastructure (i.e., AWS), it is not a direct core benefit, as is resilience or agility. Discounts on Amazon.com or Business Excellence are not inherent benefits of AWS Cloud migration. Business excellence, while an ultimate goal, is achieved through operational resilience and agility, not directly because of AWS itself. Question: 4 CertyIQ A company is planning to replace its physical on-premises compute servers with AWS serverless compute services. The company wants to be able to take advantage of advanced technologies quickly after the migration. Which pillar of the AWS Well-Architected Framework does this plan represent? A. Security B. Performance efficiency C. Operational excellence D. Reliability Answer: B Explanation: The correct answer is B, Performance Efficiency. Here's why: The scenario focuses on adopting AWS serverless compute to leverage advanced technologies rapidly after migration. This directly relates to the Performance Efficiency pillar of the AWS Well-Architected Framework. This pillar emphasizes the ability to use computing resources efficiently, adapt to changing requirements, and maintain efficiency as demands evolve. Serverless compute services like AWS Lambda and AWS Fargate allow companies to focus on application logic without managing underlying infrastructure. This enables them to quickly adopt new technologies and features offered by AWS, such as updated runtimes, libraries, and frameworks, leading to increased efficiency in development and operations. By abstracting away server management, serverless architectures allow for automatic scaling, reducing the need for manual intervention and optimizing resource utilization. Furthermore, the pay-per-use model of serverless significantly reduces costs because you only pay for the compute time your code consumes, aligning with resource optimization. Security (A) is important but not the primary focus here. While serverless can simplify some security aspects, the question emphasizes adopting advanced technologies. Operational Excellence (C) involves running and monitoring systems effectively, but the core intent is technology adoption and efficient resource use. Reliability (D) is crucial but not the primary driver. The scenario focuses on quickly adopting and utilizing advanced technologies through serverless, which is more directly tied to performance optimization and efficiency. Therefore, choosing serverless compute to rapidly adopt advanced technologies directly reflects the Performance Efficiency pillar's goal of using computing resources effectively and adapting to changing requirements. Further Reading: AWS Well-Architected Framework: https://aws.amazon.com/well-architected/ Performance Efficiency Pillar: https://wa.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/2020-07-02T19-33- 23/pillar/perfEfficiency.en.html AWS Lambda: https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/ Question: 5 CertyIQ A large company has multiple departments. Each department has its own AWS account. Each department has purchased Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances. Some departments do not use all the Reserved Instances that they purchased, and other departments need more Reserved Instances than they purchased. The company needs to manage the AWS accounts for all the departments so that the departments can share the Reserved Instances. Which AWS service or tool should the company use to meet these requirements? A. AWS Systems Manager B. Cost Explorer C. AWS Trusted Advisor D. AWS Organizations Answer: D Explanation: The correct answer is D, AWS Organizations. AWS Organizations allows you to centrally manage and govern multiple AWS accounts, offering features crucial for resource sharing and cost optimization. Reserved Instance (RI) sharing is a key benefit within AWS Organizations. Consolidated Billing, a feature of Organizations, enables unused RI capacity in one account to automatically be applied to other accounts within the same organization. This optimizes RI utilization across the entire company, preventing wasted resources and reducing overall costs. Departments needing more RIs can benefit from the surplus in other departments without the need for purchasing additional RIs immediately. AWS Systems Manager (A) focuses on operational management, providing tools for patching, configuration management, and automation within individual AWS accounts. It doesn't directly address RI sharing across multiple accounts. Cost Explorer (B) provides cost visibility and analysis, allowing you to understand spending patterns but not enabling RI sharing. AWS Trusted Advisor (C) offers recommendations for cost optimization, security, fault tolerance, and performance improvements, but it doesn't facilitate centralized management or RI sharing between accounts. Therefore, AWS Organizations is the only service that provides the functionality required to centrally manage multiple AWS accounts and share RIs effectively, meeting the company's requirement for cost optimization and resource allocation. Refer to these AWS documentation links for more details: AWS Organizations: https://aws.amazon.com/organizations/ Consolidated Billing: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/aboutv2/consolidated- billing.html Reserved Instance Sharing: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/organizations/latest/userguide/orgs_use_ri- afo.html Question: 6 CertyIQ Which component of the AWS global infrastructure is made up of one or more discrete data centers that have redundant power, networking, and connectivity? A. AWS Region B. Availability Zone C. Edge location D. AWS Outposts Answer: B Explanation: The correct answer is B, Availability Zone. An Availability Zone (AZ) is a physical location within an AWS Region. Each AZ consists of one or more discrete data centers, equipped with redundant power, networking, and connectivity. This redundancy ensures high availability and fault tolerance. When deploying applications in AWS, distributing them across multiple AZs within a region is a best practice to protect against single points of failure. If one AZ becomes unavailable, the application can continue running in another AZ. AWS Regions (A) are geographical areas that contain multiple Availability Zones. Regions are designed to be isolated from each other. Edge locations (C) are content delivery network (CDN) endpoints used by Amazon CloudFront to cache content closer to end-users, reducing latency. AWS Outposts (D) bring native AWS services, infrastructure, and operating models to virtually any data center, co-location space, or on-premises facility. While AWS Outposts can provide redundancy, they are not the component described in the question, which specifically asks about the component made of one or more discrete data centers with redundant power, networking, and connectivity within the AWS global infrastructure. Therefore, only Availability Zones directly and completely match the description provided in the question. For more information, please refer to the official AWS documentation: AWS Global Infrastructure: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/ Availability Zones: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-regions-availability- zones.html Question: 7 CertyIQ Which duties are the responsibility of a company that is using AWS Lambda? (Choose two.) A. Security inside of code B. Selection of CPU resources C. Patching of operating system D. Writing and updating of code E. Security of underlying infrastructure Answer: AD Explanation: The correct answer is AD. Here's why: AWS Lambda is a serverless compute service, meaning AWS manages the underlying infrastructure. This shifts the operational burden away from the customer. Specifically, the company using Lambda is primarily responsible for the code it writes and deploys (D). This includes developing, testing, and updating the code to meet their application requirements. Security inside of the code (A) is also the company's responsibility. While AWS secures the underlying infrastructure Lambda runs on, the company must ensure the code itself is secure. This encompasses vulnerability scanning, input validation, secure coding practices, and protecting sensitive data within the code. AWS handles the selection of CPU resources (B) because Lambda automatically scales and allocates resources based on the function's needs. The company doesn't have granular control over the specific CPU allocation. Patching of the operating system (C) is managed by AWS. The company using Lambda does not have access to or responsibility for the operating system on which the Lambda functions execute. AWS ensures the OS is secure and up-to-date. Security of the underlying infrastructure (E), including the servers, network, and storage that Lambda relies on, is the responsibility of AWS. Customers inherit this secure environment but are responsible for the security of their own code and data. Therefore, the customer is responsible for aspects related to the code they deploy within the Lambda environment, including security and updates to the code itself, but not the underlying infrastructure. Further Research: AWS Lambda documentation: https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/ AWS Shared Responsibility Model: https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/shared-responsibility-model/ Question: 8 CertyIQ Which AWS services or features provide disaster recovery solutions for Amazon EC2 instances? (Choose two.) A. 2¡‫ ׀ ׀‬Reserved Instances B. EC2 Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) C. Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) snapshots D. AWS Shield E. Amazon GuardDuty Answer: BC Explanation: The correct options for disaster recovery solutions for Amazon EC2 instances are B and C: EC2 Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) and Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) snapshots. EC2 AMIs serve as templates containing the software configuration (operating system, application server, and applications) required to launch your instances. In a disaster recovery scenario, AMIs provide a pre- configured, bootable image that can be used to rapidly re-create EC2 instances in a different AWS Region or Availability Zone, minimizing downtime. This ensures that the system can be quickly brought back online after an event that takes the primary systems down. [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/AMIs.html] Amazon EBS snapshots provide point-in-time backups of your EBS volumes. These snapshots can be used to restore the volume data in case of a failure or data loss in the primary region. When used in conjunction with AMIs, EBS snapshots allow for a complete restoration of both the instance configuration and the data it contains, a crucial element of effective disaster recovery. EBS snapshots are stored in Amazon S3, providing durability and availability. They can be copied to other regions for enhanced disaster recovery readiness. [https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/EBSSnapshots.html] Reserved Instances (A) offer cost savings by providing a discount on EC2 instance usage in exchange for a commitment to a specific instance configuration for a defined period, and while financially beneficial, do not directly contribute to disaster recovery. AWS Shield (D) protects against DDoS attacks, providing a defense against a specific type of threat, but doesn't address broader disaster recovery needs. Amazon GuardDuty (E) is a threat detection service that monitors for malicious activity and unauthorized behavior to protect your AWS accounts and workloads, and whilst useful from a security perspective, does not deal with recovery in the event of a disaster that brings systems offline. Question: 9 CertyIQ A company is migrating to the AWS Cloud instead of running its infrastructure on premises. Which of the following are advantages of this migration? (Choose two.) A. Elimination of the need to perform security auditing B. Increased global reach and agility C. Ability to deploy globally in minutes D. Elimination of the cost of IT staff members E. Redundancy by default for all compute services Answer: BC Explanation: The correct answer is BC. Here's why: B. Increased global reach and agility: AWS has data centers located around the world. Migrating to AWS allows a company to quickly deploy applications and services closer to their users, improving performance and reducing latency. This expanded global footprint provides a competitive advantage and greater agility to enter new markets. AWS Global Infrastructure C. Ability to deploy globally in minutes: AWS provides tools and services that automate the deployment process, making it possible to deploy applications and services globally in minutes. This rapid deployment capability allows companies to quickly respond to changing business needs and market conditions. Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with services like CloudFormation enables repeatable and automated deployments. AWS CloudFormation Now, let's look at why the other options are incorrect: A. Elimination of the need to perform security auditing: Security auditing is still necessary in the cloud. AWS provides tools and services to help with security, but the customer is ultimately responsible for securing their own applications and data. This is part of the Shared Responsibility Model. AWS Shared Responsibility Model D. Elimination of the cost of IT staff members: While migrating to the cloud can reduce the need for some IT staff, it does not eliminate it entirely. Companies still need IT staff to manage their cloud infrastructure, develop and deploy applications, and provide support. The responsibilities might shift, but expertise is still required. E. Redundancy by default for all compute services: While AWS offers highly available services, redundancy is not automatically configured for all compute services by default. You need to design and implement redundancy architectures using features like Availability Zones, Auto Scaling, and Elastic Load Balancing. Services like S3 are designed for high availability and data durability by default, but this isn't across the board. Question: 10 CertyIQ A user is comparing purchase options for an application that runs on Amazon EC2 and Amazon RDS. The application cannot sustain any interruption. The application experiences a predictable amount of usage, including some seasonal spikes that last only a few weeks at a time. It is not possible to modify the application. Which purchase option meets these requirements MOST cost-effectively? A. Review the AWS Marketplace and buy Partial Upfront Reserved Instances to cover the predicted and seasonal load. B. Buy Reserved Instances for the predicted amount of usage throughout the year. Allow any seasonal usage to run on Spot Instances. C. Buy Reserved Instances for the predicted amount of usage throughout the year. Allow any seasonal usage to run at an On-Demand rate. D. Buy Reserved Instances to cover all potential usage that results from the seasonal usage. Answer: C Explanation: Here's a detailed justification for why option C is the most cost-effective solution for the given scenario: The key requirements are continuous availability and predictable usage with seasonal spikes, alongside the inability to modify the application. Reserved Instances (RIs) are the best fit for the baseline, predictable load. RIs offer a significant discount compared to On-Demand instances in exchange for a commitment to use them for a specific period (1 or 3 years). This addresses the continuous availability requirement for the application's normal operation. Now, let's address the seasonal spikes. Spot Instances (option B) are tempting due to their potential cost savings; however, they come with the risk of being terminated if the Spot price exceeds your bid. This directly violates the "cannot sustain any interruption" requirement. Therefore, Spot Instances are unsuitable for critical workloads that demand constant availability. Buying RIs for the entire potential usage (option D), including the seasonal spikes, would guarantee availability but would be the most expensive. You'd be paying for capacity you don't need most of the year. Option A suggests using AWS Marketplace RIs. While AWS Marketplace offers flexibility, the specific guidance to buy Partial Upfront instances doesn't significantly alter the cost-effectiveness consideration. The core issue remains whether RIs cover the whole spike, and a marketplace RI doesn't change this. On-Demand instances provide guaranteed capacity and availability, albeit at a higher price per hour than RIs. Using On-Demand instances for the seasonal spikes on top of the Reserved Instances for the normal workload strikes the best balance. You're only paying the higher On-Demand rate for a short period when the spikes occur, minimizing overall cost while guaranteeing availability. This makes option C the most cost-effective choice. In summary: Reserved Instances for the consistent load minimize cost for the bulk of the application's runtime, while On-Demand instances handle the short seasonal spikes without risking interruptions. Authoritative Links: AWS Reserved Instances: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/reserved-instances/ AWS On-Demand Instances: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/ AWS Spot Instances: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/spot/ Question: 11 CertyIQ A company wants to review its monthly costs of using Amazon EC2 and Amazon RDS for the past year. Which AWS service or tool provides this information? A. AWS Trusted Advisor B. Cost Explorer C. Amazon Forecast D. Amazon CloudWatch Answer: B Explanation: Here's a detailed justification for why Cost Explorer is the correct answer and why the other options are incorrect: Why Cost Explorer is the Correct Answer: Cost Explorer is a dedicated AWS service designed to visualize, understand, and manage AWS costs and usage over time. It provides detailed reports and dashboards that allow users to analyze their spending patterns across different services, regions, and accounts. In this specific scenario, the company needs to review its past monthly costs for Amazon EC2 and Amazon RDS over the past year. Cost Explorer excels at providing precisely this type of historical cost analysis. Users can filter and group costs by service (EC2, RDS), time period (monthly, yearly), and other dimensions to gain granular insights into their spending. Key features include cost forecasts, reservation recommendations (to optimize costs), and the ability to set custom cost categories for better cost allocation and reporting. Cost Explorer allows users to identify trends, pinpoint areas of overspending, and make informed decisions about resource allocation and optimization. https://aws.amazon.com/aws-cost-management/aws-cost-explorer/ Why the Other Options are Incorrect: A. AWS Trusted Advisor: AWS Trusted Advisor is primarily focused on providing recommendations for cost optimization, security, fault tolerance, and performance improvements in your AWS environment. While Trusted Advisor can identify potential cost-saving opportunities, it does not provide the detailed historical cost reporting and analysis needed to review monthly costs over a year as offered by Cost Explorer. It provides actionable insights but not historical cost visualization. https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/technology/trusted-advisor/ C. Amazon Forecast: Amazon Forecast is a fully managed service that uses machine learning to deliver highly accurate time-series forecasts. It is used for predicting future trends and patterns based on historical data, not for analyzing historical cost data. This service wouldn't provide insights into past EC2 and RDS spending. https://aws.amazon.com/forecast/ D. Amazon CloudWatch: Amazon CloudWatch is a monitoring and observability service that collects and tracks metrics, logs, and events from AWS resources and applications. While CloudWatch can track billing metrics, it's not primarily designed for in-depth cost analysis or historical cost reporting in the way Cost Explorer is. CloudWatch provides real-time or near real-time metrics, but it's less suited for comprehensive historical cost analysis and visualization. https://aws.amazon.com/cloudwatch/ Question: 12 CertyIQ A company wants to migrate a critical application to AWS. The application has a short runtime. The application is invoked by changes in data or by shifts in system state. The company needs a compute solution that maximizes operational efficiency and minimizes the cost of running the application. Which AWS solution should the company use to meet these requirements? A. Amazon EC2 On-Demand Instances B. AWS Lambda C. Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances D. Amazon EC2 Spot Instances Answer: B Explanation: The correct answer is B. AWS Lambda. Here's why: AWS Lambda is a serverless compute service that lets you run code without provisioning or managing servers. This aligns perfectly with the company's needs to maximize operational efficiency and minimize costs. Since the application has a short runtime and is invoked by changes in data or system state, it fits the event-driven nature of Lambda. Lambda functions are executed only when triggered, meaning you pay only for the compute time consumed, unlike EC2 instances that incur costs even when idle. EC2 On-Demand Instances (A) offer flexibility, but the company is looking for cost optimization. They would be paying for the instance uptime regardless of how often the application runs. EC2 Reserved Instances (C) are cost-effective for long-term, predictable workloads but not ideal for applications with short runtimes and event-driven triggers. EC2 Spot Instances (D) offer significant cost savings but can be terminated with short notice, which isn't suitable for a critical application, even with short runtimes. They also require some level of capacity management. Lambda handles scaling automatically, removing operational overhead and ensures better resource utilization. Choosing Lambda helps to streamline operations and optimize spending by eliminating the need to manage servers and paying only for actual execution time. https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/pricing/ Question: 13 CertyIQ Which AWS service or feature allows users to connect with and deploy AWS services programmatically? A. AWS Management Console B. AWS Cloud9 C. AWS CodePipeline D. AWS software development kits (SDKs) Answer: D Explanation: The correct answer is D, AWS Software Development Kits (SDKs). AWS SDKs are specifically designed to enable programmatic interaction with AWS services. They provide libraries and tools in various programming languages (like Python, Java,.NET, etc.) that allow developers to embed AWS service calls directly into their applications. Using SDKs, developers can automate tasks like creating EC2 instances, managing S3 buckets, configuring IAM roles, and deploying Lambda functions without needing to manually interact with the AWS Management Console. This programmatic access facilitates automation, integration with existing applications, and the development of custom cloud solutions. AWS Management Console (A) is a graphical user interface, useful for manual management but not for programmatic interaction. AWS Cloud9 (B) is a cloud-based integrated development environment (IDE), which can utilize SDKs but is not the primary method for connecting programmatically. AWS CodePipeline (C) is a continuous delivery service, focused on automating the software release process, not the fundamental connection to AWS services for programming purposes. While CodePipeline can invoke steps using SDKs, it is not the core mechanism for programmatic access itself. The AWS SDKs directly expose the AWS APIs in a developer-friendly way, making them the core tool for programmatic interaction and deployment. Therefore, only AWS SDKs directly allow users to connect and deploy AWS services programmatically. For further research, you can refer to the official AWS documentation: AWS SDKs Getting Started with AWS SDKs Question: 14 CertyIQ A company plans to create a data lake that uses Amazon S3. Which factor will have the MOST effect on cost? A. The selection of S3 storage tiers B. Charges to transfer existing data into Amazon S3 C. The addition of S3 bucket policies D. S3 ingest fees for each request Answer: A Explanation: The correct answer is A: The selection of S3 storage tiers. The cost of an S3 data lake is primarily driven by the amount of data stored and the frequency with which that data is accessed. S3 offers different storage tiers optimized for various access patterns and durability requirements, each with a different price point. Choosing the appropriate tier significantly impacts the overall cost. For example, infrequently accessed data can be stored in S3 Glacier or S3 Glacier Deep Archive at a much lower cost than S3 Standard. Option B, charges to transfer existing data into Amazon S3, is a one-time cost. While it can be substantial depending on the amount of data, it doesn't have a continuous, long-term effect like storage tier selection. Option C, the addition of S3 bucket policies, has a negligible impact on cost. S3 bucket policies are a fundamental security feature and don't incur significant charges. Option D, S3 ingest fees, refers to charges for PUT requests. While you pay for PUT requests, the storage costs associated with the data itself (which are dependent on the tier) are significantly higher in a data lake scenario, where typically large volumes of data are stored. Therefore, the long-term costs associated with the chosen S3 storage tier (Standard, Intelligent-Tiering, Standard-IA, One Zone-IA, Glacier, or Glacier Deep Archive) will far outweigh the one-time data transfer costs, negligible bucket policy costs, and the relatively minor cost of PUT requests. The storage tier directly affects the cost per GB per month, making it the most crucial factor in determining the overall cost of the data lake. Here's some documentation for further research: Amazon S3 Storage Classes: https://aws.amazon.com/s3/storage-classes/ Amazon S3 Pricing: https://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing/ Question: 15 CertyIQ A company is launching an ecommerce application that must always be available. The application will run on Amazon EC2 instances continuously for the next 12 months. What is the MOST cost-effective instance purchasing option that meets these requirements? A. Spot Instances B. Savings Plans C. Dedicated Hosts D. On-Demand Instances Answer: B Explanation: The most cost-effective EC2 instance purchasing option for an always-available ecommerce application running continuously for 12 months is Savings Plans. Here's why: Savings Plans offer significant discounts (up to 72%) compared to On-Demand Instances in exchange for a commitment to a consistent amount of usage, measured in dollars per hour, for a 1- or 3-year term. This commitment makes them ideal for steady-state workloads like an ecommerce application that requires constant availability. Spot Instances are significantly cheaper but are not suitable for applications requiring continuous availability. Spot Instances can be terminated by AWS with a two-minute warning if the Spot price exceeds your bid price. This makes them unreliable for a mission-critical ecommerce application. On-Demand Instances provide flexibility and no commitment, but they are the most expensive option, making them less cost-effective for long-term, constant usage. While they guarantee availability, the cost is not optimized for a 12-month continuous operation. Dedicated Hosts are physical servers dedicated to your use. While they offer compliance benefits and increased control, they are the most expensive option and do not provide significant cost savings for running general-purpose workloads. They are suitable for scenarios where specific hardware or licensing requirements exist. Savings Plans guarantee that you will pay a discounted rate for your compute usage, ensuring both cost savings and the required availability for your application. The 12-month period aligns perfectly with the Savings Plans commitment options, making it the ideal choice.For detailed information regarding AWS Savings Plans, please refer to the official AWS documentation:https://aws.amazon.com/savingsplans/https://docs.aws.amazon.com/savingsplans/latest/userguide/wha is-savings-plans.html For understanding EC2 pricing models:https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/ Question: 16 CertyIQ Which AWS service or feature can a company use to determine which business unit is using specific AWS resources? A. Cost allocation tags B. Key pairs C. Amazon Inspector D. AWS Trusted Advisor Answer: A Explanation: The correct answer is A: Cost allocation tags. Cost allocation tags are key-value pairs that you can associate with AWS resources. AWS uses these tags to organize your AWS costs on your cost allocation report, making it easy to track expenses and allocate costs to different business units, projects, or teams. By applying specific tags relevant to each business unit (e.g., "BusinessUnit: Marketing," "BusinessUnit: Engineering"), you can filter and analyze your AWS cost and usage data, providing transparency into which resources each unit is consuming. Key pairs (B) are used for secure access to EC2 instances and are unrelated to cost allocation. Amazon Inspector (C) is a vulnerability management service and doesn't directly provide cost information or resource allocation insights. AWS Trusted Advisor (D) provides recommendations on cost optimization, security, performance, and fault tolerance, but it doesn't offer the granularity of resource tagging and cost breakdown that cost allocation tags provide. While Trusted Advisor can highlight potential cost-saving opportunities, it doesn't directly link resource usage to specific business units. Cost allocation tags offer a granular and direct method for attributing AWS costs to specific business units. This allows for better cost management, budgeting, and accountability within the organization. The other options focus on different aspects of AWS management but are not designed for resource tracking and allocation to business units. For further reading: AWS Documentation on Cost Allocation Tags: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awsaccountbilling/latest/aboutv2/cost-alloc-tags.html Question: 17 CertyIQ A company wants to migrate its workloads to AWS, but it lacks expertise in AWS Cloud computing. Which AWS service or feature will help the company with its migration? A. AWS Trusted Advisor B. AWS Consulting Partners C. AWS Artifacts D. AWS Managed Services Answer: D Explanation: The best answer is D. AWS Managed Services, even though option B, AWS Consulting Partners, is also a viable choice, particularly when paired with AWS Managed Services. Here's the justification: AWS Managed Services (AMS) is designed explicitly to help organizations that lack internal AWS expertise to migrate and operate their workloads in the AWS Cloud. AMS provides ongoing management of your AWS infrastructure, allowing you to focus on your core business. This includes things like security, compliance, identity, infrastructure management, and application monitoring. AMS automates common activities like change requests, incident resolution, patching, security, and backup services, enabling you to operate your environment more efficiently and securely. For a company completely lacking AWS Cloud computing expertise, this "hands-on" service is invaluable. AWS Consulting Partners (Option B) offer professional services and expertise to help organizations with various aspects of their AWS journey, including migration. While helpful, they don't provide the ongoing managed operations that AMS does. Consulting partners will typically help with the planning, architecture, and initial migration of your workloads. Some partners can assist with managing ongoing operations but are not focused on the overall AWS infrastructure lifecycle. Often, organizations will use Consulting Partners to perform the migration and then utilize AWS Managed Services to manage the workloads after they are running in AWS. AWS Trusted Advisor (Option A) is a tool that provides recommendations for optimizing your AWS environment in terms of cost, security, fault tolerance, and performance. While useful, it doesn't actively assist with the migration process or ongoing management. AWS Artifacts (Option C) is a service that provides on-demand access to AWS' compliance reports and agreements. It is helpful for compliance purposes, but not for migration assistance. Therefore, AWS Managed Services provides the most comprehensive solution for a company with limited AWS expertise to migrate and operate workloads in AWS, complemented by AWS Consulting Partners. Here's a link for further research: AWS Managed Services: https://aws.amazon.com/managed-services/ Question: 18 CertyIQ Which AWS service or tool should a company use to centrally request and track service limit increases? A. AWS Config B. Service Quotas C. AWS Service Catalog D. AWS Budgets Answer: B Explanation: Here's a detailed justification for why Service Quotas is the correct answer: Service Quotas (formerly known as Service Limits) is the AWS service specifically designed for viewing and managing limits on AWS services. Companies use it to centrally track and manage their AWS resource limits. It provides a single place to view current quotas, request quota increases, and receive notifications when approaching limits. Here's why the other options are incorrect: AWS Config: AWS Config primarily focuses on assessing, auditing, and evaluating the configurations of your AWS resources. It doesn't directly manage or request service quota increases. AWS Service Catalog: AWS Service Catalog enables organizations to create and manage catalogs of IT services that are approved for use on AWS. It's used for providing users with standardized, pre-approved services, not for managing service limits. AWS Budgets: AWS Budgets helps you plan your service usage, service costs, and instance reservations. It monitors your actual usage and costs against your planned budget and alerts you if they exceed the budgeted amounts. It does not manage or request service quota increases. In conclusion, Service Quotas is the sole service designed to address the central request and tracking of AWS service limit increases, making it the correct answer. It provides centralized visibility, management, and requesting capabilities regarding quotas, which are crucial for scaling and managing AWS deployments effectively. Supporting documentation: AWS Service Quotas: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/servicequotas/latest/userguide/intro.html Question: 19 CertyIQ Which documentation does AWS Artifact provide? A. Amazon EC2 terms and conditions B. AWS ISO certifications C. A history of a company's AWS spending D. A list of previous-generation Amazon EC2 instance types Answer: B Explanation: AWS Artifact is a service that provides on-demand access to AWS security and compliance reports and select online agreements. It's designed to support audit processes, risk assessments, and internal compliance. Specifically, AWS Artifact provides access to documents like AWS's ISO certifications, PCI DSS compliance reports, SOC reports, and other compliance documentation that demonstrate how AWS is compliant with various industry standards and regulations. This allows customers to understand AWS's security posture and use these documents to support their own compliance efforts when building applications on AWS. Option A, Amazon EC2 terms and conditions, while important, are more readily available on the AWS website and aren't the primary focus of AWS Artifact. Option C, a history of a company's AWS spending, is available through AWS Cost Explorer or billing reports, not AWS Artifact. Option D, a list of previous-generation Amazon EC2 instance types, is informational and easily found on the AWS website, but it isn't a compliance or audit-related document provided by AWS Artifact. The core function of AWS Artifact is to offer access to security and compliance documentation, making AWS ISO certifications the correct answer. Further research can be conducted at: AWS Artifact documentation: https://aws.amazon.com/artifact/ AWS Compliance: https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/ Question: 20 CertyIQ Which task requires using AWS account root user credentials? A. Viewing billing information B. Changing the AWS Support plan C. Starting and stopping Amazon EC2 instances D. Opening an AWS Support case Answer: B Explanation: The correct answer is B. Changing the AWS Support plan. Here's a detailed justification: The AWS account root user possesses unrestricted access to all resources within the AWS account. Consequently, actions involving significant account-level changes often necessitate root user credentials for security reasons. Altering the AWS Support plan falls under this category. Upgrading or downgrading your support plan can impact billing, support SLAs, and access to specific support resources. These changes affect the entire account and are deemed sensitive. AWS mandates root user authentication to minimize the risk of unauthorized modifications. Viewing billing information (option A) can typically be achieved using IAM users with appropriate permissions. Starting and stopping EC2 instances (option C) and opening AWS Support cases (option D) are operational tasks that are typically performed by IAM users with the necessary roles and policies, not the root user. Using IAM users instead of the root user adheres to the principle of least privilege, a crucial security best practice. The principle dictates granting users only the minimum necessary permissions to accomplish their tasks, reducing the potential attack surface if a user's credentials are compromised. Root user credentials should be reserved for account management activities that cannot be delegated to IAM users. This minimizes the risk associated with the highly privileged root user account.Using the root user account for everyday tasks violates security best practices. For further research and clarification on AWS root user security and IAM best practices, consult these official AWS resources: AWS IAM Best Practices: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/IAM/latest/UserGuide/best-practices.html Securing Your Root User: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/accounts/latest/reference/root-user-settings.html AWS Support Plans: https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/plans/ Question: 21 CertyIQ A company needs to simultaneously process hundreds of requests from different users. Which combination of AWS services should the company use to build an operationally efficient solution? A. Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) and AWS Lambda B. AWS Data Pipeline and Amazon EC2 C. Amazon Kinesis and Amazon Athena D. AWS Amplify and AWS AppSync Answer: A Explanation: The correct answer is A: Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) and AWS Lambda. Here's why: Amazon SQS provides a managed message queue service. This allows the company to decouple the request generation from the processing. When a user makes a request, it's placed into the SQS queue. AWS Lambda is a serverless compute service that allows code execution without managing servers. Lambda functions can be triggered by SQS messages. Together, SQS and Lambda create a scalable and efficient solution. As requests come in, they are placed in the SQS queue. Lambda functions, configured to poll the SQS queue, are triggered automatically when messages are available. These functions process the requests and perform the necessary operations. The decoupling nature of SQS ensures that a surge in requests won't overwhelm the processing system. Lambda's serverless nature ensures that compute resources are scaled automatically based on the queue load. Let's examine why the other options are less suitable: B. AWS Data Pipeline and Amazon EC2: Data Pipeline is for data movement and transformation, not general request processing. While EC2 could process requests, it requires managing servers, reducing operational efficiency compared to Lambda. C. Amazon Kinesis and Amazon Athena: Kinesis is for real-time data streaming, not general request processing. Athena is for querying data in S3, irrelevant to processing user requests directly. D. AWS Amplify and AWS AppSync: Amplify is a framework for building mobile and web apps, and AppSync is a managed GraphQL service. Neither address the core need of queuing and processing hundreds of simultaneous requests efficiently. The SQS and Lambda combination allows for asynchronous processing, automatic scaling, and reduced operational overhead, perfectly aligning with the requirement for operationally efficient handling of simultaneous requests.For further research: Amazon SQS: https://aws.amazon.com/sqs/ AWS Lambda: https://aws.amazon.com/lambda/ Question: 22 CertyIQ What is the scope of a VPC within the AWS network? A. A VPC can span all Availability Zones globally. B. A VPC must span at least two subnets in each AWS Region. C. A VPC must span at least two edge locations in each AWS Region. D. A VPC can span all Availability Zones within an AWS Region. Answer: D Explanation: The correct answer is D: A VPC can span all Availability Zones within an AWS Region. A Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) is a logically isolated section of the AWS cloud where you can launch AWS resources in a virtual network that you define. This virtual network gives you control over your networking environment, including selection of your own IP address ranges, creation of subnets, and configuration of route tables and network gateways. A VPC is a regional resource. This means that a single VPC is confined to a specific AWS Region, but within that region, it can span all of the Availability Zones (AZs). AZs are physically separated locations within an AWS Region. Each AZ is designed to be isolated from failures in other AZs, providing fault tolerance. You can create subnets within your VPC and place them in different AZs to increase the availability and resilience of your applications. Option A is incorrect because a VPC cannot span across different AWS Regions. Each VPC is confined to a single region. Option B is incorrect because a VPC doesn't have to span at least two subnets. It can exist with a single subnet or even without any subnets, although it's not practical for most use cases. Option C is incorrect because edge locations are used for caching content through services like CloudFront and are not directly related to the scope of a VPC. The scope of a VPC is determined by AWS Regions and Availability Zones. In summary, a VPC is a regional resource, meaning its boundary is limited to the region it is created in. Within that region, you have the flexibility to deploy resources across all available Availability Zones within your defined VPC, which is critical for building highly available and fault-tolerant applications. Supporting links: AWS VPC Documentation AWS Regions and Availability Zones Question: 23 CertyIQ Which of the following are components of an AWS Site-to-Site VPN connection? (Choose two.) A. AWS Storage Gateway B. Virtual private gateway C. NAT gateway D. Customer gateway E. Internet gateway Answer: BD Explanation: The correct answer identifies the key components facilitating a Site-to-Site VPN connection between an on- premises network and an AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). Virtual Private Gateway (VGW): A VGW is the VPN concentrator on the AWS side. It's attached to your VPC and serves as the anchor point for the VPN connection. All VPN traffic from your on-premises network destined for the VPC passes through the VGW. The VGW handles the routing, encryption, and decryption of traffic. You need a VGW to establish a Site-to-Site VPN connection. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpn/latest/s2svpn/VPC_VPN.html Customer Gateway (CGW): This represents your on-premises VPN device. It is a resource created within AWS that contains information about your customer gateway device, including its public IP address and the routing configuration necessary to communicate with the VGW. AWS uses this information to establish the VPN tunnel. The CGW could be a physical hardware device or a software-based VPN appliance. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpn/latest/s2svpn/SetUpVPN.html The other options are incorrect: AWS Storage Gateway: This is a service that connects an on-premises software appliance with cloud-based storage, not directly involved in Site-to-Site VPN connections. NAT Gateway: A NAT Gateway provides network address translation for instances in a private subnet to connect to the internet or other AWS services, but it's not a component of the VPN connection itself. Internet Gateway (IGW): An IGW allows VPC resources to access the internet, but is not used in a Site-to-Site VPN connection where traffic routes over a secured tunnel. The IGW is a different way to allow connectivity to AWS. In summary, a Site-to-Site VPN requires a VGW on the AWS side and a CGW representing your on-premises VPN endpoint, enabling secure communication between your network and your VPC. Question: 24 CertyIQ A company needs to establish a connection between two VPCs. The VPCs are located in two different AWS Regions. The company wants to use the existing infrastructure of the VPCs for this connection. Which AWS service or feature can be used to establish this connection? A. AWS Client VPN B. VPC peering C. AWS Direct Connect D. VPC endpoints Answer: B Explanation: The correct answer is B, VPC peering. Here's why: VPC peering allows you to connect two VPCs, enabling network traffic to route between them privately. Option B states "VPC peering" which is suitable for connection between two VPCs in different regions. VPC peering connections are established using the existing networking infrastructure within AWS, without requiring gateways, VPN connections, or physical hardware. Inter-Region VPC peering specifically addresses connections between VPCs in different AWS regions, meeting the stated requirement. AWS Client VPN (Option A) allows users to securely connect to their AWS resources from anywhere using OpenVPN-based clients. It's not for connecting VPCs. AWS Direct Connect (Option C) establishes a dedicated network connection from your on-premises environment to AWS. It's primarily used for hybrid cloud scenarios, not for connecting VPCs within AWS regions. VPC endpoints (Option D) provide private connections to AWS services from within your VPC without exposing traffic to the public internet. They aren't used to connect VPCs together. Therefore, given the requirement of connecting two VPCs in different regions using the existing infrastructure of the VPCs, Inter-Region VPC peering is the most appropriate and cost-effective solution. For further research, you can refer to the AWS documentation on VPC Peering: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/peering/what-is-vpc-peering.html and Inter-Region VPC Peering: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/peering/vpc-peering-across-regions.html. Question: 25 CertyIQ According to the AWS shared responsibility model, what responsibility does a customer have when using Amazon RDS to host a database? A. Manage connections to the database B. Install Microsoft SQL Server C. Design encryption-at-rest strategies D. Apply minor database patches Answer: A Explanation: The correct answer is A. Manage connections to the database. The AWS Shared Responsibility Model delineates the security and operational responsibilities between AWS and the customer when using AWS services. In the context of Amazon RDS, AWS manages the underlying infrastructure, including the physical hardware, networking, operating system, and database software patching. This encompasses tasks like physical security of data centers, hardware maintenance, and ensuring the database software is updated with security patches. However, the customer is responsible for managing aspects related to the data and how it's accessed within the RDS instance. Managing connections to the database falls squarely under the customer's purview. This involves configuring security groups to control network access, managing user accounts and permissions, and handling connection pooling to optimize database performance and security. Furthermore, the customer is responsible for database-level security, data encryption, and defining encryption-at-rest strategies. While AWS may provide tools and services to facilitate encryption, the responsibility of implementing and managing encryption policies rests with the customer. Regarding database software installations for specific needs like Microsoft SQL Server, AWS handles the actual installation process. However, selecting the database engine type itself (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, etc.) is inherently a decision the customer makes. Finally, as outlined, applying minor database patches is AWS's responsibility, not the customer's. In summary, customers using RDS are responsible for securing and managing access to their data, whereas AWS is responsible for securing the underlying infrastructure upon which RDS runs. Managing connections is directly related to controlling and securing data access, thus placing it in the customer's realm of responsibility within the shared responsibility model. Further research: AWS Shared Responsibility Model: https://aws.amazon.com/compliance/shared-responsibility-model/ Amazon RDS Security: https://aws.amazon.com/rds/security/ Question: 26 CertyIQ What are some advantages of using Amazon EC2 instances to host applications in the AWS Cloud instead of on premises? (Choose two.) A. EC2 includes operating system patch management. B. EC2 integrates with Amazon VPC, AWS CloudTrail, and AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). C. EC2 has a 100% service level agreement (SLA). D. EC2 has a flexible, pay-as-you-go pricing model. E. EC2 has automatic storage cost optimization. Answer: DE Explanation: The correct answer is DE. Here's why: D. EC2 has a flexible, pay-as-you-go pricing model: On-premises infrastructure requires significant upfront investment in hardware, software licenses, and ongoing maintenance, regardless of resource utilization. EC2 offers a pay-as-you-go model, enabling users to pay only for the compute resources they consume. This flexibility optimizes cost based on actual usage, especially beneficial for fluctuating workloads or initial deployment phases where demand is uncertain. This contrasts with on-premises where resources sit idle when not in use. This is a core benefit of cloud computing's elasticity. E. EC2 has automatic storage cost optimization: While EC2 itself doesn't directly offer automatic storage optimization, AWS provides storage services tightly integrated with EC2, like Amazon EBS and S3, that do offer features for automatic storage tiering and cost optimization through lifecycle policies. For example, infrequently accessed data can be automatically moved to lower-cost storage tiers like S3 Glacier, and EBS volumes can be easily resized and managed to prevent over-provisioning. This is not possible with the same level of ease and automation on premises, where upgrading or changing storage tiers often involves manual intervention, downtime, and hardware replacement. AWS also manages the underlying storage hardware maintenance, reducing operational overhead. Let's analyze why the other options are incorrect: A. EC2 includes operating system patch management: AWS does not automatically manage OS patching within EC2 instances. While AWS provides services like Systems Manager Patch Manager, it's the customer's responsibility to configure and maintain the patching of the operating system and installed software on their EC2 instances. B. EC2 integrates with Amazon VPC, AWS CloudTrail, and AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM): This is true and a benefit of using AWS, but the option doesn't highlight an advantage compared to on- premises infrastructure. On-premises infrastructure also supports networking, security, and access control functionalities. C. EC2 has a 100% service level agreement (SLA): No cloud provider offers a 100% SLA. While AWS offers high availability, there are always potential risks. EC2's SLA varies by region and instance type, but even the highest SLAs are less than 100%. Supporting links: Amazon EC2 Pricing: https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/ Amazon S3 Storage Classes: https://aws.amazon.com/s3/storage-classes/ Amazon EBS Pricing: https://aws.amazon.com/ebs/pricing/ AWS Systems Manager Patch Manager: https://aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/features/patch- manager/ Question: 27 CertyIQ A user needs to determine whether an Amazon EC2 instance's security groups were modified in the last month. How can the user see if a change was made? A. Use Amazon EC2 to see if the security group was changed. B. Use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to see which user or role changed the security group. C. Use AWS CloudTrail to see if the security group was changed. D. Use Amazon CloudWatch to see if the security group was changed. Answer: C Explanation: The correct answer is C, using AWS CloudTrail. CloudTrail is a service that enables governance, compliance, operational auditing, and risk auditing of your AWS account. It logs API calls made to AWS services, including actions taken on EC2 instances and their associated resources like security groups. Here's why the other options are incorrect: A. Use Amazon EC2 to see if the security group was changed: EC2 management console will only show the current state of the security group. It does not keep a historical log of changes. You won't be able to determine if a change occurred in the past month. B. Use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to see which user or role changed the security group: IAM manages users, groups, and roles, granting permissions to AWS resources. While you can see which IAM entities have permission to modify security groups, IAM does not log who actually performed a specific action. It doesn't provide an audit trail of resource modifications. D. Use Amazon CloudWatch to see if the security group was changed: CloudWatch is a monitoring and observability service. While you could theoretically create a CloudWatch metric based on CloudTrail logs that trigger an alarm when security groups change, CloudWatch itself doesn't inherently track security group changes. CloudWatch is for monitoring metrics and logs related to the performance and health of your AWS resources, not auditing API activity. CloudTrail is specifically designed to log API calls, creating an audit trail. By examining CloudTrail logs, you can pinpoint the exact time a security group was modified, the user or role that initiated the change, and the details of the modification (e.g., added/removed rules). CloudTrail delivers these log files to an S3 bucket you specify, from which you can analyze them. Therefore, CloudTrail provides the historical information required to determine if and how a security group was modified in the past month. Authoritative Links: AWS CloudTrail: https://aws.amazon.com/cloudtrail/ Logging Amazon EC2 API calls with AWS CloudTrail: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/logging-using-cloudtrail.html Question: 28 CertyIQ Which AWS service will help protect applications running on AWS from DDoS attacks? A. Amazon GuardDuty B. AWS WAF C. AWS Shield D. Amazon Inspector Answer: C Explanation: The correct answer is C, AWS Shield. AWS Shield is a managed Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection service that safeguards applications running on AWS. It provides always-on detection and automatic inline mitigations that minimize application downtime and latency. Here's why the other options are incorrect: A. Amazon GuardDuty: GuardDuty is a threat detection service that monitors for malicious activity and unauthorized behavior to protect your AWS accounts, workloads, and data stored in Amazon S3. It's primarily focused on threat intelligence and security monitoring, not DDoS protection. B. AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall): While AWS WAF can help mitigate some types of DDoS attacks, especially those targeting the application layer (Layer 7), it is primarily designed to protect web applications from common web exploits like SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS). It can be used in conjunction with AWS Shield for comprehensive protection, but Shield is the primary DDoS protection service. WAF filters malicious web traffic but doesn't have the same infrastructure to absorb large volumetric attacks that Shield has. D. Amazon Inspector: Amazon Inspector is an automated security assessment service that helps improve the security and compliance of applications deployed on AWS. It assesses applications for vulnerabilities and deviations from best practices. Like GuardDuty, Inspector is a security assessment tool, not a DDoS protection service. AWS Shield offers two tiers: Standard and Advanced. Standard provides automatic protection against common, frequently occurring network and transport layer DDoS attacks at no additional charge. AWS Shield Advanced provides enhanced detection and mitigation capabilities, support for custom protections, and DDoS cost protection. In essence, AWS Shield is the specialized service explicitly designed to counter DDoS attacks by absorbing and mitigating malicious traffic before it reaches your applications. Reference links: AWS Shield: https://aws.amazon.com/shield/ AWS WAF: https://aws.amazon.com/waf/ Amazon GuardDuty: https://aws.amazon.com/guardduty/ Amazon Inspector: https://aws.amazon.com/inspector/ Question: 29 CertyIQ Which AWS service or feature acts as a firewall for Amazon EC2 instances? A. Network ACL B. Elastic network interface C. Amazon VPC D. Security group Answer: D Explanation: The correct answer is D. Security group. Security groups act as a virtual firewall for your EC2 instances, controlling inbound and outbound traffic at the instance level. They operate at the instance level, meaning each EC2 instance can have one or more security groups associated with it. Security groups are stateful, meaning that if you allow inbound traffic from a particular source, the response traffic is automatically allowed back, regardless of outbound rules. You define rules that specify the type of traffic (protocol, port, source/destination) that is allowed or denied. Network ACLs (Option A) are also firewalls, but they operate at the subnet level within a VPC, controlling traffic in and out of subnets. They are stateless, requiring explicit rules for both inbound and outbound traffic. While also acting as a firewall, Network ACLs are not specifically designed to protect individual EC2 instances. Elastic network interfaces (Option B) are virtual network interfaces that you can attach to EC2 instances to enable them to connect to a network. They do not function as firewalls; they only provide the network connectivity. Amazon VPC (Option C) is a virtual private cloud, a logically isolated section of the AWS cloud where you can launch AWS resources in a defined virtual network. While it provides network isolation, it does not, by itself, act as a firewall for EC2 instances; security groups and Network ACLs within the VPC provide this firewall functionality. In summary, security groups are the primary instance-level firewalls in AWS, specifically designed to control traffic to and from individual EC2 instances, making them the most appropriate answer to the question. Here are authoritative links for further research: Security Groups: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/VPC_SecurityGroups.html Network ACLs: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/vpc/latest/userguide/vpc-network-acls.html Question: 30 CertyIQ How does the AWS Cloud pricing model differ from the traditional on-premises storage pricing model? A. AWS resources do not incur costs B. There are no infrastructure operating costs C. There are no upfront cost commitments D. There are no software licensing costs Answer: B Explanation: The correct answer is B. There are no infrastructure operating costs. Here's a detailed justification: AWS's pricing model fundamentally shifts the responsibility for infrastructure operation from the customer to Amazon. In a traditional on-premises model, organizations shoulder the entire burden of infrastructure: purchasing servers, managing power and cooling, ensuring physical security, and handling hardware maintenance. These activities are collectively considered infrastructure operating costs. With AWS, these costs are largely absorbed by Amazon. AWS manages the physical data centers, hardware, and underlying infrastructure. Customers pay only for the services they consume (e.g., compute time, storage used, data transfer). While customers still need to manage their applications and data within the AWS environment, they are relieved of the direct operating expenses associated with the physical infrastructure itself. This "pay-as-you-go" model is a core benefit of cloud computing. While options C and D are partially true and attractive benefits, they are not the primary differentiator in how pricing models work. Option C (no upfront cost commitments) is a characteristic of many AWS services but not all (Reserved Instances require upfront commitment). Option D (no software licensing costs) is situation- dependent, as customers might still need to bring their own licenses for certain software. Option A is incorrect, as AWS resources obviously incur costs. Therefore, eliminating infrastructure operating costs stands out as the most significant and overarching difference. The operating expenses simply disappear from the user's balance sheet when utilizing AWS. Further research can be done on the AWS website: AWS Pricing Overview: https://aws.amazon.com/pricing/ AWS Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Calculator: https://aws.amazon.com/tco-calculator/ to estimate and compare cost between AWS and on-premise. Question: 31 CertyIQ A company has a single Amazon EC2 instance. The company wants to adopt a highly available architecture. What can the company do to meet this requirement? A. Scale vertically to a larger EC2 instance size. B. Scale horizontally across multiple Availability Zones. C. Purchase an EC2 Dedicated Instance. D. Change the EC2 instance family to a compute optimized instance. Answer: B Explanation: The correct answer is B, scaling horizontally across multiple Availability Zones. Let's break down why: High availability in cloud computing ensures that applications remain accessible to users even if a component fails. Single EC2 instances represent a single point of failure. If that instance fails, the application becomes unavailable. Scaling vertically (Option A) involves increasing the resources (CPU, memory, storage) of a single instance. While this enhances performance, it doesn't address availability. The single point of failure remains. Scaling horizontally (Option B) means distributing your application across multiple instances in different Availability Zones (AZs) within an AWS region. Availability Zones are physically isolated locations with independent power, networking, and cooling. If one AZ fails, the instances in the other AZs continue to serve traffic, ensuring high availability. This is typically combined with a load balancer to distribute traffic evenly among the healthy instances. Purchasing an EC2 Dedicated Instance (Option C) provides hardware isolation, but it doesn't inherently improve availability. The single instance still represents a single point of failure. Changing the EC2 instance family (Option D) might improve performance or cost, but it does nothing for high availability. Therefore, the best way to achieve high availability is to distribute your application across multiple instances in different Availability Zones (AZs). This ensures redundancy and fault tolerance. Further research: AWS High Availability: https://aws.amazon.com/high-availability/ AWS Well-Architected Framework - Reliability Pillar: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/latest/reliability-pillar/welcome.html Question: 32 CertyIQ A company's on-premises application deployment cycle was 3-4 weeks. After migrating to the AWS Cloud, the company can deploy the application in 2-3 days. Which benefit has this company experienced by moving to the AWS Cloud? A. Elasticity B. Flexibility C. Agility D. Resilience Answer: C Explanation: The correct answer is C. Agility. Agility, in the context of cloud computing, refers to the ability to rapidly develop, test, and launch new applications or modify existing ones. The scenario highlights a significant reduction in the application deployment cycle, shrinking from weeks to days. This improved speed and responsiveness is a direct result of increased agility facilitated by the AWS Cloud. Here's why the other options are less suitable: A. Elasticity: Elasticity refers to the ability to dynamically scale resources up or down based on demand. While the company may be experiencing elasticity benefits, the primary focus of the scenario is the speed of deployment, not resource scaling. B. Flexibility: Flexibility implies having a wide range of choices and options. Although AWS offers a flexible environment, the specific improvement detailed in the question is related to speed of deployment. D. Resilience: Resilience is the ability of a system to recover quickly from failures. While AWS offers resilient services, the core benefit demonstrated is the faster deployment cycle. The AWS Cloud provides services and tools that enable automation, infrastructure as code, and continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines. These capabilities directly contribute to increased agility by streamlining and accelerating the application deployment process. The shift from a slow, manual on-premises deployment to a rapid, automated cloud-based deployment demonstrates a dramatic improvement in the company's ability to respond to changing business needs and innovate quickly. Faster deployment cycles mean faster time-to-market, more frequent updates, and the ability to iterate more rapidly on software. For further research, consider these resources: AWS Well-Architected Framework - Operational Excellence Pillar: This framework emphasizes the importance of automating and optimizing operations to increase agility. https://wa.aws.amazon.com/wellarchitected/2020-07-02T19-33-23/operational-excellence/ops-ex-01- define.en.html AWS Documentation on DevOps: AWS offers a suite of DevOps tools and services that facilitate agility through automation and CI/CD. https://aws.amazon.com/devops/ Cloud Computing Concepts: Understanding the fundamentals of cloud computing can help clarify the concepts of agility, elasticity, and other key benefits. Question: 33 CertyIQ Which of the following are included in AWS Enterprise Support? (Choose two.) A. AWS technical account manager (TAM) B. AWS partner-led support C. AWS Professional Services D. Support of third-party software integration to AWS E. 5-minute response time for critical issues Answer: AD Explanation: The correct answer is AD because AWS Enterprise Support provides a comprehensive set of features specifically tailored for large organizations with complex AWS deployments. Option A is correct: AWS Technical Account Manager (TAM). A TAM is a designated individual who provides proactive guidance, architectural reviews, and ongoing support to optimize the AWS environment. The TAM acts as a trusted advisor, understanding the customer's business goals and helping them achieve those goals using AWS services. They have deep knowledge of AWS best practices and can facilitate communication between the customer and AWS service teams. This is a significant benefit exclusive to the Enterprise Support plan. Option D is correct: Support of third-party software integration to AWS. This is a critical component of Enterprise Support. Organizations often rely on a variety of third-party software solutions that need to integrate seamlessly with their AWS infrastructure. AWS Enterprise Support provides assistance with troubleshooting integration issues, helping ensure smooth operation and preventing disruptions to critical business processes. This includes investigating issues, providing guidance, and working with third-party vendors where necessary. Option B is incorrect: AWS partner-led support is a different service offering provided by AWS partners, not a direct component of the Enterprise Support plan. While Enterprise Support might interface with partner solutions, it doesn't include partner-led support intrinsically. Option C is incorrect: AWS Professional Services are consulting engagements that are separate from Enterprise Support. Professional Services help customers with specific project-based needs, such as migrating to AWS or developing new applications. While related to AWS support in a broader sense, they're not included in Enterprise Support. Option E is incorrect: While Enterprise Support offers fast response times, the critical issue response time is less than 15 minutes, not precisely 5 minutes. 5 minute response time applies to the Business support plan for production system down, not the Enterprise support plan for critical issues. In summary, AWS Enterprise Support includes a Technical Account Manager (TAM) to provide proactive guidance and assistance with third-party software integration, making AD the correct choices. Relevant links: AWS Support Plans AWS Enterprise Support Question: 34 CertyIQ A global media company uses AWS Organizations to manage multiple AWS accounts. Which AWS service or feature can the company use to limit the access to AWS services for member accounts? A. AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) B. Service control policies (SCPs) C. Organizational units (OUs) D. Access control lists (ACLs) Answer: B Explanation: The correct answer is B. Service control policies (SCPs). SCPs are a feature within AWS Organizations specifically designed to manage permissions across multiple AWS accounts. They act as guardrails, defining the maximum permissions available to member accounts within an organization or organizational unit (OU). An SCP does not grant permissions; rather, it limits them. Even if an IAM user or role within a member account has permissions to perform a certain action, if an SCP denies that action, the action will be blocked. This is unlike IAM, which is used for managing permissions within a single AWS account, not across multiple accounts managed by Organizations. While IAM is crucial for individual account security, it lacks the centralized control needed for multi-account environments. OUs are simply a hierarchical grouping of accounts; they don't inherently limit access, though they can be used as targets for SCPs. ACLs primarily control network traffic and file system permissions, not AWS service access within accounts. Therefore, for a global media company using AWS Organizations to limit access to AWS services for member accounts, SCPs are the most appropriate and powerful tool. They provide centralized control and ensure that all accounts adhere to the organization's security policies. AWS Organizations documentation on SCPsAWS Security Blog - Governance at Scale Using AWS Organizations Service Control Policies (SCPs) Question: 35 CertyIQ A company wants to limit its employees' AWS access to a portfolio of predefined AWS resources. Which AWS solution should the company use to meet this requirement? A. AWS Config B. AWS software development kits (SDKs) C. AWS Service Catalog D. AWS AppSync Answer: C Explanation: Here's a detailed justification for why AWS Service Catalog is the best answer: The core requirement is to restrict employee access to a pre-defined set of AWS resources. AWS Service Catalog addresses this directly by allowing organizations to create and manage catalogs of IT services (AWS resources) that are approved for use. This creates a standardized and controlled environment. AWS Service Catalog allows administrators to define products, which are blueprints for one or more AWS resources. These products can be simple (like a single EC2 instance) or complex (like a multi-tier application). The service also enables administrators to define portfolios, which are collections of products. Crucially, permissions can be managed at the portfolio level using AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM). Employees are granted access only to the portfolios (and the products within them) that are relevant to their roles. This ensures that they can't provision or interact with resources outside of their allowed scope. AWS Config is primarily for auditing and compliance tracking of AWS resources. While useful for monitoring configurations, it doesn't inherently restrict access to resources. AWS SDKs are development tools and do not offer access control functionality. AWS AppSync is a managed GraphQL service for building data-driven apps; it's irrelevant to access limitation requirements. Service Catalog provides governance and standardization by defining templates for resource creation, reducing the risk of misconfigured or non-compliant resources. By offering a limited, curated catalog of resources, it simplifies the onboarding process for new team members and ensures consistent deployments. It promotes self-service IT while maintaining central control, allowing employees to provision approved resources without requiring direct administrator intervention for routine tasks. For further information, consult the official AWS Service Catalog documentation: https://aws.amazon.com/servicecatalog/ and the AWS IAM documentation: https://aws.amazon.com/iam/. Question: 36 CertyIQ An online company was running a workload on premises and was struggling to launch new products and features. After migrating the workload to AWS, the company can quickly launch products and features and can scale its infrastructure as required. Which AWS Cloud value proposition does this scenario describe? A. Business agility B. High availability C. Security D. Centralized auditing Answer: A Explanation: The correct answer is A. Business agility. The scenario explicitly highlights the company's increased speed in launching new products and features, along with the ability to rapidly scale infrastructure. This directly reflects business agility, which is the ability to quickly and easily adapt to changing business requirements. AWS enables this by providing on-demand access to a wide range of services and resources, allowing companies to experiment, iterate, and deploy new solutions much faster than with traditional on-premises infrastructure. This is because provisioning resources becomes automated and scalable. The move to AWS allows them to avoid the lengthy procurement and setup times associated with physical hardware. The cloud's pay-as-you-go model further supports agility by reducing the financial risk associated with trying new ideas; if an experiment doesn't work out, the company only pays for the resources used. High availability (option B) refers to the system's ability to remain operational despite failures, which isn't the focus of the scenario. Security (option C) is important but not the primary value proposition described. Centralized auditing (option D) is a valuable feature but also not directly related to speed of development and scalability. Further Research: AWS Cloud Economics: https://aws.amazon.com/economics/ AWS Whitepaper - Overview of AWS: https://d1.awsstatic.com/whitepapers/aws-overview.pdf Question: 37 CertyIQ Which of the following are advantages of the AWS Cloud? (Choose two.) A. AWS management of user-owned infrastructure B. Ability to quickly change required capacity C. High economies of scale D. Increased deployment time to market E. Increased fixed expenses Answer: BC Explanation: The correct answers are B and C. Let's analyze why: B. Ability to quickly change required capacity: This is a core benefit of cloud computing, including AWS. The elasticity of the cloud allows users to easily scale resources up or down based on demand. This means organizations can rapidly adapt to changing workloads without the need for lengthy procurement or infrastructure setup. This on-demand scalability enhances agility and responsiveness. https://aws.amazon.com/elasticity/ C. High economies of scale: AWS, due to its massive infrastructure and large customer base, achieves significant economies of scale. AWS can offer lower prices than individual organizations building their own data centers. This translates to cost savings for AWS customers. AWS spreads the cost of infrastructure and personnel across a large customer base which reduces the average cost per customer. https://aws.amazon.com/economics/ Let's look at why the other options are incorrect: A. AWS management of user-owned infrastructure: AWS manages its own infrastructure, not user-owned infrastructure, except in very specific hybrid scenarios like AWS Outposts, which are not typical. The core value proposition of AWS is that it provides a fully managed infrastructure allowing customers to focus on their applications. D. Increased deployment time to market: Cloud computing generally decreases deployment time. Cloud services can be deployed much faster than traditional on-premises infrastructure. E. Increased fixed expenses: AWS helps reduce fixed expenses by shifting costs to a variable, pay-as-you-go model. You only pay for the resources you consume, eliminating the need for large upfront investments in hardware and infrastructure. Question: 38 CertyIQ AWS has the ability to achieve lower pay-as-you-go pricing by aggregating usage across hundreds of thousands of users. This describes which advantage of the AWS Cloud? A. Launch globally in minutes B. Increase speed and agility C. High economies of scale D. No guessing about compute capacity Answer: C Explanation: The correct answer is C. High economies of scale. Here's why: Economies of scale refer to the cost advantages that a business can achieve due to its scale of operations. In the context of AWS, aggregating the usage of numerous customers allows them to purchase hardware, bandwidth, and other resources in bulk, resulting in significantly lower per-unit costs. These savings are then passed on to customers in the form of lower pay-as-you-go pricing. Let's examine why the other options are less suitable: A. Launch globally in minutes: While AWS does enable rapid global deployment, this isn't directly related to aggregated usage and lower pricing. This relates more to global reach and ease of deployment, not cost savings through large-scale operations. B. Increase speed and agility: AWS's speed and agility stem from its on-demand resource availability and automation capabilities. While these features indirectly contribute to cost-efficiency, they aren't the primary reason for the lower pay-as-you-go pricing resulting from aggregated usage. D. No guessing about compute capacity: This refers to the ability to scale resources up or down as needed, eliminating the need to over-provision and waste resources. Although it helps reduce costs, it doesn't explain how AWS achieves lower pricing by aggregating usage. Economies of scale is the direct result of this aggregation. Therefore, the ability of AWS to lower pay-as-you-go prices through aggregated usage directly demonstrates the principle of economies of scale. For further research, you can explore these resources: AWS Cloud Economics: https://aws.amazon.com/economics/ Understanding Cloud Economics: https://www.bmc.com/blogs/cloud-economics/ Question: 39 CertyIQ What is the lowest-cost, durable storage option for retaining database backups for immediate retrieval? A. Amazon S3 B. Amazon Glacier C. Amazon EBS D. Amazon EC2 Instance Store Answer: A Explanation: Here's a detailed justification for why Amazon S3 is the lowest-cost, durable storage option for retaining database backups for immediate retrieval compared to the other options: Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is object storage designed for high durability, availability, and scalability. It provides various storage classes optimized for different access patterns and cost requirements. For immediate retrieval of database backups, the S3 Standard or S3 Intelligent-Tiering classes are most suitable. S3 offers a robust infrastructure that automatically manages data redundancy across multiple facilities, ensuring durability even if one facility fails. Amazon Glacier (now S3 Glacier) and S3 Glacier Deep Archive are archival storage services. While they offer the lowest storage costs, they are optimized for infrequent access and long-term retention. Retrieval times can range from minutes to hours, making them unsuitable for immediate backup retrieval. Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Storage) provides block-level storage volumes for use with EC2 instances. While EBS offers fast performance for active workloads, it's more expensive per GB than S3 for long-term storage, particularly when used solely for backups. Additionally, directly attaching EBS volumes to an EC2 instance for backup storage ties the backup's availability to that instance. Amazon EC2 Instance Store provides temporary block-level storage directly attached to the host EC2 instance. Data stored in the Instance Store is ephemeral; it's lost if the instance stops, terminates, or fails. This makes Instance Store entirely unsuitable for durable database backups. Furthermore, Instance Store capacity is often limited and can be expensive. Therefore, Amazon S3 strikes the best balance of low cost, high durability, and immediate retrieval capabilities. It allows you to store backups durably and retrieve them quickly when needed, using features like lifecycle policies to manage storage costs by transitioning backups to lower-cost tiers as they age and are accessed less frequently. Authoritative Links: Amazon S3: https://aws.amazon.com/s3/ Amazon S3 Storage Classes: https://aws.amazon.com/s3/storage-classes/ Amazon EBS: https://aws.amazon.com/ebs/ Question: 40 CertyIQ A company is developing a mobile app that needs a high-performance NoSQL database. Which AWS services could the company use for this database? (Choose two.) A. Amazon Aurora B. Amazon RDS C. Amazon Redshift D. Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility) E. Amazon DynamoDB Answer: DE Explanation: The question asks for suitable AWS services for a high-performance NoSQL database for a mobile app. Amazon DynamoDB is a key-value and document database that delivers single-digit millisecond performance at any scale. It's fully managed and suitable for mobile, web, gaming, ad tech, IoT, and other applications. Its serverless, pay-per-use model perfectly aligns with mobile app backends, offering automatic scaling and high availability, making it an excellent choice for a NoSQL database requiring high performance and scalability. Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility) is also a NoSQL document database service that supports MongoDB workloads. It allows leveraging existing MongoDB code, drivers, and tools with improved performance, scalability, and availability. DocumentDB handles the heavy lifting of managing the database, freeing developers to focus on building applications. While it may not be as performant as DynamoDB for all use cases, its MongoDB compatibility is a strong advantage if the company already has experience with MongoDB. Aurora and RDS are relational database services, which are not NoSQL. Redshift is a data warehousing service and primarily used for analytics, not for serving real-time requests from a mobile application. Therefore, they are unsuitable for the needs presented in the prompt. In summary, DynamoDB's design for high-performance NoSQL workloads and DocumentDB's MongoDB compatibility make them the two best-suited AWS services for the company's mobile app database needs. Relevant Links: Amazon DynamoDB: https://aws.amazon.com/dynamodb/ Amazon DocumentDB: https://aws.amazon.com/documentdb/ Question: 41 CertyIQ Which tasks are the responsibility of AWS, according to the AWS shared responsibility model? (Choose two.) A. Patch the Amazon EC2 guest operating system. B. Upgrade the firmware of the network infrastructure. C. Apply password rotation for IAM users. D. Maintain the physical security of edge locations. E. Maintain least privilege access to the root user account. Answer: BD Explanation: The AWS Shared Responsibility Model clearly delineates security and operational responsibilities between AWS and the customer. AWS is responsible for the security of the cloud, while the customer is responsible for security in the cloud. Option B, upgrading the firmware of the network infrastructure, falls squarely under AWS's responsibility. AWS manages the physical infrastructure on which its services run, and this includes maintaining and upgrading network devices like routers and switches. This ensures the underlying network is secure and performant. Option D, maintaining the physical security of edge locations, is also an AWS responsibility. Edge locations are AWS-managed data centers used for content delivery and

AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C01) PDF - CertyIQ

Document Details

Tags

Related

Summary

Full Transcript