Amazon Web Services · 2026 Edition
A complete preparation guide written by Amazon Web Services-certified engineers. Covers the exam format,all 5 blueprint domains, a week-by-week study plan, and proven tips for passing first time.
3–5 months
Prep time
Advanced
Difficulty
65
Exam questions
750/1000
Pass mark
Exam code
DBS-C01
Full name
AWS Database Specialty
Vendor
Amazon Web Services
Duration
180 minutes
Questions
65 items
Passing score
750/1000 (scaled)
Domains covered
5 blueprint domains
Recommended experience
2+ years of database management experience; AWS Solutions Architect Associate recommended
Typical prep time
3–5 months
DBS-C01 earns the AWS Certified Database – Specialty designation. It validates advanced knowledge of AWS database services and the ability to recommend the right database for a workload — a credential valued at organisations building complex multi-database architectures.
Job roles this opens
Domain percentage weights are not currently available for this exam. The checklist below is still useful for planning your study.
Weeks 1–3
Database Workload Design: OLTP vs OLAP, relational vs NoSQL, purpose-built databases
Tip: AWS has 15+ purpose-built database services. Know the primary use cases: RDS/Aurora (relational OLTP), Redshift (analytical OLAP), DynamoDB (key-value/document, single-digit millisecond), ElastiCache (in-memory caching), Neptune (graph), DocumentDB (MongoDB-compatible document), Keyspaces (Cassandra-compatible), Timestream (time series), QLDB (immutable ledger).
Weeks 4–6
Database Deployment and Migration: Aurora Global Database, DMS, Schema Conversion Tool
Tip: Aurora Global Database replicates across up to 5 regions with typically under 1 second replication lag. Know the difference between Aurora Global Database (managed global replication) and standard Aurora read replicas (same-region or cross-region, higher replication lag). Global Database is the answer for cross-region OLTP with sub-second failover.
Weeks 7–9
Database Management and Operations: Multi-AZ, backups, maintenance windows, parameter groups
Tip: RDS automated backups vs manual snapshots: Automated backups are retained for 7–35 days and enable point-in-time recovery; manual snapshots persist until deleted and are the right choice when you need to retain a specific database state beyond the retention period.
Weeks 10–13
Database Monitoring, Troubleshooting, and Security: Performance Insights, Enhanced Monitoring, VPC, encryption
Tip: Amazon RDS Performance Insights is the primary diagnostic tool for DBS-C01 scenarios. Know how to interpret the DB Load chart (how many queries are running vs how many the database can handle), how to identify the top SQL statements by load, and how to distinguish between wait types (CPU, lock waits, I/O).
DynamoDB table design is the most tested topic on DBS-C01. A well-designed DynamoDB table often uses a composite primary key (PK + SK) to support multiple access patterns in a single table (single-table design). Know how GSIs enable additional access patterns by specifying different PK/SK attributes.
Aurora Serverless v2 vs Aurora Serverless v1: v2 scales in fine-grained increments (0.5 ACU steps) and can scale to zero only with a minimum of 0 ACUs. v1 has coarser scaling and a warm-up delay. v2 is recommended for variable workloads and is the default for new Aurora Serverless deployments.
Amazon Neptune graph query languages: Gremlin (for property graphs, TinkerPop-compatible) and SPARQL (for RDF graphs, W3C standard). Questions describe a graph use case and may ask which query language is appropriate — know that social networks, recommendation engines, and fraud detection graphs typically use Gremlin.
ElastiCache for Redis vs ElastiCache for Memcached: Redis supports replication, multi-AZ failover, persistence, Lua scripting, and complex data types (sorted sets, lists, geospatial). Memcached supports multi-threading but no persistence or replication. Use Redis for anything requiring availability or rich data structures.
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) replication instances are the compute that runs the migration. Know the difference between Full Load (initial bulk migration), Change Data Capture (CDC, ongoing replication), and Full Load + CDC (migrate existing data then sync ongoing changes).
Apply everything in this guide with adaptive practice questions, detailed answer explanations, and domain analytics.
Deep-dive explanations of the key topics tested on DBS-C01 — with exam key points and common misconceptions.