DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A company uses Amazon DynamoDB as a session store for a web application. During peak hours, the application experiences high latency and throttling on the DynamoDB table. The table has a read capacity of 5000 RCU and write capacity of 2000 WCU. The application reads and writes session data using the session ID as the partition key. What is the most cost-effective solution to reduce throttling?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently assume throttling always requires scaling capacity (Auto Scaling or manual increase), but they overlook that caching with DAX is often the most cost-effective solution for read-heavy, repetitive access patterns like session stores.
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
✓
Implement DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) to cache frequent reads.
DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) provides an in-memory cache that absorbs read-heavy traffic, reducing the load on the underlying DynamoDB table. Since the application reads session data using the session ID as the partition key, DAX can serve frequent reads with microsecond latency, eliminating throttling without requiring a capacity increase. This is the most cost-effective solution because it avoids provisioning additional RCUs for reads that are repetitive and cacheable.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable Auto Scaling on the table to automatically adjust capacity.
Why it's wrong here
Auto Scaling helps but may not be immediate and could increase costs.
- ✗
Increase the read capacity units (RCU) and write capacity units (WCU) to 10000 each.
Why it's wrong here
This would resolve throttling but at higher cost.
- ✗
Enable DynamoDB global tables to distribute read traffic.
Why it's wrong here
Global tables are for multi-region replication, not for reducing throttling in a single region.
- ✓
Implement DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) to cache frequent reads.
Why this is correct
DAX reduces read load on the table, mitigating throttling cost-effectively.
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