SAA-C03 Design High-Performing Architectures Practice Test 14 — 15 Questions

Question 1

A high-volume telemetry pipeline writes streaming click events that must be processed by multiple independent consumers. Which service is most appropriate? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.

Accepted Answer

Amazon Kinesis Data Streams. Amazon Kinesis Data Streams is designed for real-time streaming of high-volume data, such as click events, and allows multiple independent consumers to process the same stream concurrently via enhanced fan-out or shared throughput. It provides durable, ordered data retention and integrates with AWS Lambda, Kinesis Data Analytics, and Kinesis Data Firehose without requiring custom operational scripts.

Answer

AWS DataSync

Answer

Amazon EBS

Answer

Amazon Route 53

Question 2

A global video platform serves mostly static images and JavaScript files from an S3 origin. Users in distant countries report slow load times. What should improve performance most? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudFront distribution with the S3 bucket as origin. Amazon CloudFront is a global content delivery network (CDN) that caches static content (images, JavaScript) at edge locations closer to users, drastically reducing latency for distant countries. By using the S3 bucket as the origin, CloudFront offloads requests from S3 and accelerates delivery via HTTP/2, TCP optimizations, and persistent connections. This is the most effective managed AWS-native solution for improving global load times for static assets.

Answer

A larger S3 bucket

Answer

RDS read replicas

Answer

An EC2 Auto Scaling group in one Region

Question 3

A DynamoDB table for a retail API has a partition key based only on the current date. Write throttling occurs during business hours. What is the best design change? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.

Accepted Answer

Use a higher-cardinality partition key that distributes writes across partitions. Using only the current date as a partition key creates a hot partition because all writes for the day target a single partition, leading to throttling. A higher-cardinality partition key, such as a composite key combining date with a unique attribute like user ID or order ID, distributes writes evenly across multiple partitions, fully utilizing DynamoDB's provisioned throughput. This is the best managed-native solution to resolve write throttling without changing the table's capacity or moving data.

Answer

Create a global secondary index with the same date key

Answer

Reduce the table's write capacity

Answer

Move the table to S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval

Question 4

A read-heavy document portal repeatedly queries the same product catalogue data from DynamoDB with millisecond latency requirements. Which service can reduce read latency and table load? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.

Accepted Answer

DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX). DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) is an in-memory cache for DynamoDB that delivers up to 10x read performance improvement, reducing read latency to microseconds for repeated queries. It offloads read traffic from the DynamoDB table, lowering consumed read capacity units and table load, making it ideal for read-heavy workloads with millisecond latency requirements. As a fully managed, AWS-native service, DAX aligns with the architecture review board's preference for managed controls.

Answer

Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose

Answer

S3 Transfer Acceleration

Answer

AWS Glue Data Catalog

Question 5

A analytics dashboard uses RDS MySQL and receives many read-only reporting queries that slow down the primary database. What should the architect add? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.

Accepted Answer

RDS read replica and route reporting queries to it. B is correct because an RDS read replica is a fully managed, native AWS solution that offloads read-heavy reporting queries from the primary RDS MySQL instance. The read replica asynchronously replicates data using the MySQL binlog, allowing reporting traffic to be routed to it without impacting the primary database's write performance. This directly addresses the slowdown caused by many read-only queries while satisfying the architecture review board's preference for a managed AWS-native control.

Answer

S3 lifecycle policy

Answer

Multi-AZ standby and route reads to the standby

Answer

A larger NAT gateway

Question 6

A latency-sensitive mobile game backend uploads large files to S3 from users around the world. Which two features can improve upload performance? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.

Accepted Answer

S3 multipart upload. B is correct because S3 multipart upload allows a large file to be broken into smaller parts and uploaded in parallel, which significantly reduces the impact of network latency and improves throughput. This is especially beneficial for latency-sensitive applications where upload speed is critical.

Answer

S3 Object Lock

Answer

S3 Inventory

Question 7

A Lambda-based travel booking site has unpredictable traffic spikes and users see latency caused by cold starts. The function must respond consistently during expected campaign windows. What should be configured? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.

Accepted Answer

Provisioned concurrency during campaign windows. Provisioned concurrency initializes a specified number of execution environments in advance, eliminating cold starts for those instances. During campaign windows, this ensures consistent latency by keeping the function warm and ready to handle spikes without the delay of initializing new environments. It is a managed AWS-native control that directly addresses the unpredictable traffic pattern described.

Answer

A larger deployment package

Answer

CloudTrail data events

Answer

Reserved concurrency only

Question 8

A media archive requires consistent high IOPS for a transactional database on EC2. Which EBS volume type is most suitable? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.

Accepted Answer

Provisioned IOPS SSD such as io2. The io2 Provisioned IOPS SSD volume type is designed for latency-sensitive transactional workloads that require consistent, high IOPS. It provides a service-level agreement (SLA) of 99.999% durability and supports up to 256,000 IOPS per volume, making it ideal for a database on EC2 that demands predictable performance. As a managed AWS-native EBS volume, it aligns with the architecture review board's preference for a fully AWS-controlled storage solution.

Answer

st1 Throughput Optimized HDD

Answer

Instance store only

Answer

sc1 Cold HDD

Question 9

A telemetry pipeline uses an Application Load Balancer in one Region. Global users need lower network latency to the application without caching dynamic responses. What should be considered? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.

Accepted Answer

AWS Global Accelerator. AWS Global Accelerator is the correct choice because it uses the AWS global network and Anycast IP addresses to route user traffic to the optimal Application Load Balancer endpoint, reducing latency for global users without caching dynamic responses. Unlike CloudFront, Global Accelerator does not cache content; it simply optimizes the network path, making it ideal for dynamic or real-time applications where caching is not acceptable. It is a managed AWS-native service that aligns with the architecture review board's preference.

Answer

S3 Cross-Region Replication

Answer

CloudFront only with long TTLs

Answer

AWS Backup cross-Region copy

Question 10

A video platform uses Amazon Aurora. The workload has many short-lived database connections from Lambda functions, causing connection storms. What should be added? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.

Accepted Answer

RDS Proxy. RDS Proxy is the correct choice because it manages a pool of reusable database connections, allowing Lambda functions to share and reuse connections rather than opening and closing them with each invocation. This eliminates connection storms by buffering short-lived connections from Lambda and reducing the load on the Aurora database, all as a fully managed AWS-native service.

Answer

S3 Select

Answer

An internet gateway

Answer

A larger Route 53 hosted zone

Question 11

A retail API uses EC2 instances behind an ALB. CPU is consistently high during peak traffic, and request latency rises. What should be configured? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.

Accepted Answer

Auto Scaling policy based on an appropriate CloudWatch metric. The correct answer is A because an Auto Scaling policy based on an appropriate CloudWatch metric (e.g., CPUUtilization or ALB RequestCountPerTarget) dynamically adds or removes EC2 instances to match demand, preventing sustained high CPU and rising latency. This is a managed, AWS-native control that aligns with the architecture review board's preference.

Answer

S3 Object Lock

Answer

A VPC endpoint for CloudWatch only

Answer

Disable health checks

Question 12

A document portal needs low-latency full-text search across product descriptions and filtered attributes. Which managed service is most suitable? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.

Accepted Answer

Amazon OpenSearch Service. Amazon OpenSearch Service is a managed service that provides low-latency full-text search and analytics capabilities, making it ideal for indexing and searching product descriptions and filtered attributes. It is AWS-native and supports features like inverted indices, fuzzy search, and faceted filtering, which directly address the requirement for a high-performance document portal.

Answer

AWS Config

Answer

Amazon EFS

Answer

Amazon SQS

Question 13

A high-volume analytics dashboard writes streaming click events that must be processed by multiple independent consumers. Which service is most appropriate? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.

Accepted Answer

Amazon Kinesis Data Streams. Amazon Kinesis Data Streams is the most appropriate service because it is a managed, AWS-native solution designed for real-time streaming data ingestion and processing. It durably stores records for up to 365 days and allows multiple independent consumers (e.g., Lambda, Kinesis Data Analytics, EC2) to read from the same stream concurrently using enhanced fan-out or shared throughput, meeting the requirement for high-volume click event processing.

Answer

Amazon Route 53

Answer

Amazon EBS

Answer

AWS DataSync

Question 14

A global mobile game backend serves mostly static images and JavaScript files from an S3 origin. Users in distant countries report slow load times. What should improve performance most? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.

Accepted Answer

Amazon CloudFront distribution with the S3 bucket as origin. Amazon CloudFront is a global content delivery network (CDN) that caches static content (images, JavaScript) at edge locations close to users, drastically reducing latency. By using the S3 bucket as the origin, CloudFront offloads requests from S3 and serves cached objects from the nearest edge, which directly addresses slow load times for distant users. This is a managed AWS-native service that aligns with the architecture review board's preference.

Answer

RDS read replicas

Answer

A larger S3 bucket

Answer

An EC2 Auto Scaling group in one Region

Question 15

A DynamoDB table for a travel booking site has a partition key based only on the current date. Write throttling occurs during business hours. What is the best design change? The architecture review board prefers a managed AWS-native control.

Accepted Answer

Use a higher-cardinality partition key that distributes writes across partitions. Option D is correct because using a low-cardinality partition key like the current date causes all writes to land on a single partition, leading to throttling. By choosing a higher-cardinality partition key (e.g., combining date with a user ID or booking ID), writes are distributed evenly across multiple partitions, leveraging DynamoDB's internal partitioning to handle the throughput. This is a managed, AWS-native design change that resolves hot partition issues without additional services.

Answer

Create a global secondary index with the same date key

Answer

Move the table to S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval

Answer

Reduce the table's write capacity