CLF-C02 Cloud Technology and Services Practice Question
A gaming company needs a database that can handle millions of requests per second with consistent single-digit millisecond latency and automatically scales without any capacity planning. Which AWS database service meets these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse Amazon Aurora's auto-scaling storage with automatic throughput scaling, overlooking that Aurora still requires manual compute provisioning and does not match DynamoDB's ability to handle millions of requests per second without capacity planning.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Amazon DynamoDB
Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed NoSQL key-value and document database that delivers consistent single-digit millisecond latency at any scale. It automatically scales throughput capacity via on-demand mode, eliminating the need for capacity planning, and can handle millions of requests per second, making it ideal for high-traffic gaming workloads.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon RDS for MySQL
Why it's wrong here
Amazon RDS is a managed relational database that scales vertically (by instance size). It does not automatically handle millions of requests per second without capacity planning and does not guarantee single-digit millisecond latency at that scale.
- ✗
Amazon Aurora
Why it's wrong here
Aurora is a relational, SQL-compatible database engine (MySQL or PostgreSQL) that stores its data on a distributed storage layer, but it still enforces ACID transactions and a fixed schema. Even Aurora Serverless v2 requires configuring a capacity range and its scaling takes seconds, not the instant, automatic elasticity needed to absorb millions of requests per second. Since the question specifically asks for a NoSQL database that guarantees single-digit millisecond latency, Aurora fails the core NoSQL requirement and carries relational overhead inappropriate for this workload.
- ✓
Amazon DynamoDB
Why this is correct
DynamoDB is a serverless NoSQL key-value and document database engineered for predictable single-digit millisecond latency at any scale. Its automatic partitioning and multi-AZ replication allow it to scale horizontally and absorb millions of requests per second without provisioning servers or managing capacity. This combination of serverless operation, flexible schema, and consistently low latency makes it the default AWS service for high-throughput transactional workloads such as gaming, IoT, and session state.
- ✗
Amazon Redshift
Why it's wrong here
Redshift is a petabyte-scale columnar data warehouse designed for complex analytical SQL queries over large, aggregated datasets, not for point lookups or low-latency transactional operations. Its query performance depends on cluster node configuration, distribution styles, and sort keys, and it does not automatically scale to a per-request capacity model the way a serverless NoSQL store does. Therefore it is the wrong fit for an application demanding millions of requests per second with single-digit millisecond response times.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CLF-C02 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CLF-C02 exam.