When a build finishes, four separate things must happen: an email to the release manager, a Lambda function that updates a dashboard, a message into an SQS queue for the deployment worker, and an HTTPS callback to a partner system. The build job must not have to know about any of them, and a fifth destination will be added next month. What should the build publish to?
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02), objective 3. Cloud technology and services medium
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The options
Correct An Amazon SNS topic that each destination subscribes to
Correct. One publish is delivered to every subscriber, and email addresses, Lambda functions, SQS queues and HTTPS endpoints are all supported subscription types. Adding the fifth destination is a subscription, with no change to the build.
Not correct Nothing: have the build call all four systems in sequence
Wrong. That is the coupling the requirement rules out, and it is fragile — if the partner's endpoint is slow, the build waits; if it fails, the steps after it may never run.
Not correct A single SQS queue that all four consumers poll
Wrong, and it is a common misreading of how a queue works. A message is processed by one consumer and then deleted, so four pollers would each get a share of the messages rather than all of them getting every message.
Not correct Amazon SES, with code in the build for the other three
Wrong. SES sends the email well, and it is the right service for bulk and transactional mail, but it solves one destination out of four and leaves the build coupled to the rest.
Why
This is the fan-out pattern, and SNS is its usual expression: one message, many subscribers, each of which can be a queue, a function, an endpoint or a person. Publishing to a topic whose subscribers are SQS queues is the classic combination, because each consumer then gets its own buffer. Amazon EventBridge does the same job with content-based routing rules and a much wider set of AWS and third-party targets. One message and many readers means SNS; one message and one worker means SQS.
Where this comes from
- Cited
- AWS exam guide task statement 3.8
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