DVA-C02 · Question #418
A company uses AWS X-Ray to monitor a serverless application. The components of the application have different request rates. The user interactions and transactions are important to trace, but they…
The correct answer is C. Disable sampling and trace all requests for requests that handle user interactions or transactions. Option C correctly addresses both requirements by disabling sampling (effectively setting a 100% trace rate) for the critical low-volume user interactions and transactions, ensuring none are missed, while separately configuring a reduced or zero sampling rate for high-volume…
Question
A company uses AWS X-Ray to monitor a serverless application. The components of the application have different request rates. The user interactions and transactions are important to trace, but they are low in volume. The background processes such as application health checks, polling, and connection maintenance generate high volumes of read-only requests. Currently, the default X-Ray sampling rules are universal for all requests. Only the first request per second and some additional requests are recorded. This setup is not helping the company review the requests based on service or request type. A developer must configure rules to trace requests based on service or request properties. The developer must trace the user interactions and transactions without wasting effort recording minor background tasks. Which solution will meet these requirements?
Options
- ADisable sampling for high-volume read-only requests. Sample at a lower rate for all requests that
- BDisable sampling and trace all requests for requests that handle user interactions or transactions.
- CDisable sampling and trace all requests for requests that handle user interactions or transactions.
- DDisable sampling for high-volume read-only requests. Sample at a higher rate for all requests that
How the community answered
(52 responses)- A13% (7)
- B10% (5)
- C73% (38)
- D4% (2)
Explanation
Option C correctly addresses both requirements by disabling sampling (effectively setting a 100% trace rate) for the critical low-volume user interactions and transactions, ensuring none are missed, while separately configuring a reduced or zero sampling rate for high-volume background tasks like health checks and polling. AWS X-Ray custom sampling rules allow you to match requests by service name, URL path, HTTP method, or host, which is precisely what the developer needs to differentiate user-driven traffic from background noise.
Why the distractors are wrong: Options A and D get the logic backwards - disabling sampling (tracing everything) on already-high-volume background requests would create excessive noise and cost, not reduce it. A lower sample rate for "all requests" (Option A) fails to guarantee that critical user transactions are captured reliably. Option D applying a higher rate broadly still doesn't solve the per-service targeting requirement and wastes capacity on background tasks.
Memory tip: Think of it as a VIP list at a club - user transactions are VIPs who always get in (100% sampled), while background health-check bots get bounced or heavily filtered. In X-Ray, custom sampling rules with higher priority override the default rule, so you create a specific rule for VIP traffic first, then a suppression rule for the noise below it.
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