A developer is writing infrastructure-as-code for a serverless app (Lambda + API Gateway + DynamoDB) and wants terse syntax with local test/debug support. Which tool is designed for this?
A.AWS SAM (Serverless Application Model)
Correct. Terse serverless syntax + local debugging is SAM's purpose.
B.Raw CloudFormation only
Raw CFN works but is verbose and lacks local test tooling.
C.AWS CDK with ECS constructs
CDK is a valid general option but the exam's expected answer for terse serverless IaC is SAM.
D.OpsWorks stacks
OpsWorks is a Chef/Puppet config service — legacy, not serverless IaC.
Why this answer
SAM extends CloudFormation with compact serverless types (AWS::Serverless::Function/Api/Table) and provides `sam local` for invoking functions and testing APIs on your machine — built precisely for this workflow.
Correct answer: A · Last reviewed 2026-10-26
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