A company's architecture team must receive immediate email notification whenever new Amazon EC2 instances are launched in the company's main AWS production account. What should a SysOps…

Question

Options

• ACreate a user data script that sends an email message through a smart host connector. Include
• BCreate an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic and a subscription that uses
• CCreate an Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) queue and a subscription that uses the
• DCreate an Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) topic. Configure AWS Systems

• A
  6% (2)
• B
  92% (33)
• C
  3% (1)

Explanation

Option B is correct because Amazon SNS natively supports email subscriptions and, when paired with an Amazon EventBridge rule targeting the EC2 RunInstances API event, delivers immediate email alerts to subscribers the moment a new instance is launched - no polling or custom code required.

Why the distractors fail:

• A - User data scripts run inside the instance after launch, making them unreliable for notifications (the script could fail, be skipped, or vary per AMI), and they require modifying every launch configuration.
• C - SQS is a pull-based queue for decoupling services; it has no native email delivery mechanism. A consumer application would need to poll the queue and send email separately.
• D - AWS Systems Manager is for instance management and operational tasks (patching, run commands), not event-driven email notification pipelines.

Memory tip: Think of SNS as a megaphone - it broadcasts to subscribers (email, SMS, Lambda, etc.) the moment an event fires. Whenever an exam asks "immediate notification to humans," SNS + EventBridge is almost always the answer. SQS holds messages for systems to process; SNS pushes messages to people and services.

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