DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
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?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates 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.
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
✓
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.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
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
Time to Live (TTL) lets you define an epoch-timestamp attribute so DynamoDB automatically deletes expired items at no write cost, satisfying the 24-hour session expiry without custom cleanup jobs or scans. Deletion typically occurs within 48 hours of expiry, though expired items are already hidden from reads.
- ✗
DynamoDB Streams
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB Streams captures an ordered log of item-level changes for consumption by Lambda or other processors; it does not delete expired items. It tempts because streams commonly trigger cleanup logic, and it would be correct if the requirement were reacting to session updates or replicating changes elsewhere.
- ✗
Global Tables
Why it's wrong here
Global Tables replicate a DynamoDB table across Regions for multi-Region active-active access; they do not expire items. It tempts because session data is often geographically distributed, and it would be correct if the requirement were low-latency reads and writes for players in multiple Regions.
- ✗
Point-in-Time Recovery
Why it's wrong here
Point-in-Time Recovery provides continuous backups and restores a table to any second in the past 35 days; it does not remove items on a schedule. It tempts because it also involves time-based data handling, and it would be correct if the requirement were recovering a table after accidental writes or deletions.
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