Browse AWS Certification Guides

DOP-C02 Deployment Strategies Across Runtimes Guide

May 11, 2026

Study DOP-C02 blue-green, canary, immutable, EC2, container, and Lambda deployment strategy decisions.

On this page

Deployment strategy questions on DOP-C02 are about release risk and rollback speed. AWS wants you to match the rollout method to the runtime, the blast radius, and the recovery expectation.

Strategy chooser

Requirement Strongest first fit Why
Lowest blast radius on a live user path Canary or weighted shift Exposure increases gradually
Fast switch to a new environment with clean rollback Blue/green Traffic can move back quickly
Minimize configuration drift on hosts Immutable deployment New instances replace changed ones
Lambda function release with controlled exposure Alias or weighted traffic shifting Native fit for serverless rollout control

Runtime matters

Do not choose a rollout method in the abstract. DOP-C02 expects you to think about:

  • EC2 or Auto Scaling group update mechanics
  • ECS or EKS task replacement behavior
  • Lambda version and alias shifting
  • whether storage or state makes a rollout pattern harder

Strong rollback habit

If the question stresses critical production impact, the best answer usually includes:

  • a rollout pattern with limited blast radius
  • automated health checks
  • a clear rollback path
  • no dependency on manual rebuild or reconfiguration during rollback

Common traps

  • choosing blue/green when the real issue is that no health gate exists
  • using in-place mutable changes where immutable replacement would reduce risk
  • treating Lambda, containers, and EC2 as if the same release pattern fits all of them
  • focusing on deployment speed without thinking about recovery speed
Revised on Monday, June 15, 2026
1.3 Artifact Build and Management