Least Implementation Effort for Web Portal and Document Extraction

SAA-C03 By islever Editorial Last updated

Design secure workloads and applications. Design cost-optimized compute solutions.

Short answer

A Run EC2 On-Demand Instances for the portal and use AWS Lambda for the document extract program to meet uptime and minimal change requirements.

Question

A company has an employee web portal. Employees log in to the portal to view payroll details. The company is developing a new system to give employees the ability to upload scanned documents for reimbursement. The company runs a program to extract text-based data from the documents and attach the extracted information to each employee’s reimbursement IDs for processing. The employee web portal requires 100% uptime. The document extract program runs infrequently throughout the day on an on-demand basis. The company wants to build a scalable and cost-effective new system that will require minimal changes to the existing web portal. The company does not want to make any code changes. Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST implementation effort?
  1. Run Amazon EC2 On-Demand Instances in an Auto Scaling group for the web portal. Use an AWS Lambda function to run the document extract program. Invoke the Lambda function when an employee uploads a new reimbursement document. Correct Answer
  2. Run Amazon EC2 Spot Instances in an Auto Scaling group for the web portal. Run the document extract program on EC2 Spot Instances. Start document extract program instances when an employee uploads a new reimbursement document.
  3. Purchase a Savings Plan to run the web portal and the document extract program. Run the web portal and the document extract program in an Auto Scaling group.
  4. Create an Amazon S3 bucket to host the web portal. Use Amazon API Gateway and an AWS Lambda function for the existing functionalities. Use the Lambda function to run the document extract program. Invoke the Lambda function when the API that is associated with a new document upload is called.

Key Takeaways

The question tests the trade-off between architectural refactoring and minimal implementation effort; the common trap is choosing a fully serverless migration (Option D) which violates the 'no code change' constraint despite its technical elegance.

This scenario evaluates the ability to design a cost-effective, scalable solution for infrequent document processing while maintaining high availability for a web portal with zero code changes. The correct approach leverages serverless compute for the extraction task while preserving the existing portal infrastructure.

Common mistake: Many candidates select Option D because it represents a modern, serverless architecture. However, this option requires rewriting the web portal to run on S3/API Gateway and Lambda, directly contradicting the requirement for minimal changes and no code modifications.

Expert Analysis

Why the Answer Is Correct

Option A is the best fit because it addresses every constraint precisely. Running the web portal on EC2 On-Demand Instances ensures the required 100% uptime (unlike Spot instances). Using AWS Lambda for the document extraction program provides a highly scalable, cost-effective solution for an infrequent workload without requiring any changes to the existing portal code or infrastructure. The integration can be handled via simple triggers (e.g., S3 events if documents are stored in S3 before processing, or direct invocation), adhering to the 'minimal changes' rule.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

Option B is incorrect because Amazon EC2 Spot Instances cannot guarantee 100% uptime as they can be terminated by AWS with short notice. Option C is incorrect because running both the portal and the extractor in an Auto Scaling group using Savings Plans does not provide the scalability or cost-efficiency of serverless for the infrequent extractor task, and it still requires managing the underlying instances. Option D is incorrect because migrating the web portal to S3 and API Gateway requires significant code refactoring and architectural changes, violating the explicit constraint of 'no code changes' and 'minimal implementation effort'.

Community Comment Notes

Community consensus strongly supports Option A, with many users noting that Option D is a 'trap' answer that ignores the business constraints. As user JoeTromundo noted, "Option D requires a complete re-architecture... This does not align with the requirement of minimal changes." While some users like hpirnaj questioned the cost-effectiveness of On-Demand instances for the portal, the primary driver here is the 'least implementation effort' and 'no code change' constraint, making A the only viable choice among the options provided.

Exam Strategy

When a question specifies 'no code changes' or 'minimal implementation effort', prioritize solutions that integrate with existing infrastructure rather than proposing a full migration to new services like Serverless or Containers unless explicitly allowed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why isn't Option D (Serverless Migration) the best choice?

Option D requires rewriting the web portal to host on S3/API Gateway and Lambda. This violates the explicit requirement for 'no code changes' and 'minimal implementation effort'.

Can Spot Instances be used for the web portal?

No. Spot Instances are interruptible and cannot guarantee the 100% uptime required by the employee web portal. On-Demand or Reserved Instances are necessary for high availability.

More SAA-C03 FAQ →

Community Votes

A
78%
C
22%

78% of anonymous learners picked answer A. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.

Discussion 12 contributions

Compiled from public community threads and reader submissions, lightly edited for clarity. Handles and vote tallies are shown as recorded, and comments reflect the views of individual contributors.

From public community threads 12

  1. JoeTromundo 👍 4 Answered A
    "The company does not want to make any code changes." Option D requires a complete re-architecture of the web portal to be hosted on Amazon S3 and API Gateway, which involves significant changes to the existing system. This does not align with the requirement of minimal changes to the current setup.
  2. ckhemani 👍 3 Answered A
    Answer: A This solution offers the most scalable and cost-effective approach with minimal changes to the existing web portal and no code modifications. Why Not Other Options?: Option B (Spot Instances): Spot Instances are not suitable for workloads requiring 100% uptime, as they can be terminated by AWS with short notice. Option C (Savings Plan): A Savings Plan could reduce costs but does not address the requirement for running the document extraction program efficiently or without code changes. Option D (S3 with API Gateway and Lambda): This would require significant changes to the existing web portal setup, including moving the portal to S3 and reconfiguring its architecture, which contradicts the requirement of minimal implementation effort and no code change.
  3. hpirnaj 👍 3 Answered C
    i hate these types of questions . there is no perfect answer A:on demand "not cost-effective " , also , how do you want to invoke Lambda . there is no API call B: spot instance ("web portal requires 100% uptime") D:s3 is for static website . it can work but payroll needs to update every 2 weeks and require extensive code change C in my opinion is the only correct answer. it is scalable "ASG", no code change and cost effective "saving plan"
  4. XXXXXlNN 👍 3
    D makes more sense if the company asks to redesign the whole thing to achieve better operational management, performance, cost effective, etc. However, it requires us to provide solution with MINIMUM change... thus A it is I guess.
  5. rpmaws 👍 3 Answered A
    because they don't want any change in code so A is correct.
Show 7 more comments
  1. Salilgen 👍 1 Answered C
    Spot Instances are not suitable for workloads requiring 100% uptime then B is out. D is the best solution but it requires some implementation effort. Savings plan (that include Lambda too...) is cheaper than on-demand (option A). Moreover, C doesn't require any code change or other AWS services.
  2. progounick 👍 1 Answered D
    I think D is better choice. Even though A makes sense too, D seems the correct one
  3. RealPro111 👍 1 Answered D
    Least effort, webportal is simply an interface: D
  4. swati1508 👍 3
    I thinks it’s D
  5. progounick 👍 2 Answered A
    A ChatGPT agrees with me
  6. 744fdad 👍 2
    i think D
  7. komorebi 👍 1
    Answer is A

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