This DEA-C01 practice question tests your understanding of data store management. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company is using Amazon DynamoDB for a gaming application. They want to store player session data that expires after 24 hours. Which DynamoDB feature should be used?
Time to Live (TTL)
TTL deletes items automatically after a defined expiration time.
DynamoDB Streams
Why wrong: Streams capture item-level changes, not deletion based on time.
Global Tables
Why wrong: Global Tables replicate data across Regions.
Point-in-Time Recovery
Why wrong: PITR is for backups, not expiration.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Time to Live (TTL)
Amazon DynamoDB Time to Live (TTL) allows you to define a per-item timestamp attribute that automatically deletes items after a specified duration. For the gaming session data that must expire after 24 hours, you can set the TTL attribute to the current time plus 24 hours, and DynamoDB will asynchronously delete expired items without any additional cost or write operations.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Time to Live (TTL)
Why this is correct
TTL deletes items automatically after a defined expiration time.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
DynamoDB Streams
Why it's wrong here
Streams capture item-level changes, not deletion based on time.
Global Tables
Why it's wrong here
Global Tables replicate data across Regions.
Point-in-Time Recovery
Why it's wrong here
PITR is for backups, not expiration.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates may confuse DynamoDB Streams (which can react to deletions) with the actual mechanism that performs the deletion, or assume Point-in-Time Recovery can be used to 'roll back' expired data, neither of which addresses automatic expiration.
Detailed technical explanation
DynamoDB TTL works by checking the TTL attribute (a Unix epoch timestamp in seconds) on each item; expired items are typically deleted within 48 hours of expiration, though most deletions occur within minutes. The TTL action is irreversible and does not consume write capacity units, but it does generate a delete event in DynamoDB Streams if enabled, which can be used to trigger downstream processes. A real-world scenario where this matters is in high-write gaming applications: using TTL avoids the cost and complexity of running a separate garbage-collection job to remove stale session data.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
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FAQ
Data Store Management — This question tests Data Store Management — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Time to Live (TTL) — Amazon DynamoDB Time to Live (TTL) allows you to define a per-item timestamp attribute that automatically deletes items after a specified duration. For the gaming session data that must expire after 24 hours, you can set the TTL attribute to the current time plus 24 hours, and DynamoDB will asynchronously delete expired items without any additional cost or write operations.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
This DEA-C01 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 DEA-C01 exam.
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