DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A company runs an Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL database for its e-commerce platform. The application team reports that write-intensive workloads are causing high latency and the database is experiencing storage bottlenecks. The database currently uses General Purpose SSD (gp2) storage. Which action would be MOST effective in improving write performance without changing the database instance class?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers assume Provisioned IOPS (io1) is always the best choice for write performance, but the question specifically tests knowledge of gp3's superior baseline performance and cost efficiency for write-intensive workloads without requiring an instance class change.
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
✓
Change the storage type to General Purpose SSD (gp3).
D is correct because gp3 storage provides a baseline performance that is higher than gp2 for the same storage size, and it allows you to independently provision IOPS and throughput without needing to increase storage. This directly addresses the write-intensive workload's high latency and storage bottleneck by offering up to 4,000 IOPS at no additional cost (compared to gp2's 3,000 IOPS baseline for larger volumes), and you can scale IOPS up to 16,000 without changing the instance class.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Create a read replica and offload writes to it.
Why it's wrong here
Read replicas are for read traffic; writes cannot be offloaded to a read replica.
- ✗
Switch the storage type to Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1).
Why it's wrong here
Provisioned IOPS improves performance but is more expensive; gp3 often provides sufficient improvement without provisioning IOPS.
- ✗
Enable Multi-AZ deployment for high availability.
Why it's wrong here
Multi-AZ provides failover support but does not improve write performance.
- ✓
Change the storage type to General Purpose SSD (gp3).
Why this is correct
gp3 offers higher baseline IOPS and throughput than gp2, improving write performance.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.