DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A company uses Amazon DynamoDB for a gaming application. They need to store player session data that expires after 24 hours. Which DynamoDB feature should they use to automatically delete expired items?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse TTL with DynamoDB Streams, thinking streams can automatically delete items, but streams only notify of changes and require separate logic to perform deletions.
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)
DynamoDB Time to Live (TTL) is the correct feature because it allows you to define a per-item timestamp attribute (e.g., `expireAt`) that DynamoDB automatically deletes once that timestamp is reached. This is ideal for expiring session data after 24 hours without requiring custom code or scheduled jobs to scan and delete items, reducing cost and operational overhead.
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 attribute holding an expiry timestamp; DynamoDB then deletes each item automatically once that timestamp passes, with no write capacity consumed. This directly satisfies the 24-hour automatic expiry requirement for player session data, eliminating manual cleanup jobs.
- ✗
DynamoDB auto scaling
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB auto scaling adjusts provisioned read and write capacity in response to traffic patterns; it never deletes items, so expired session data would persist indefinitely. It is tempting because it automates capacity management, and it would be the right choice when a table's throughput demands fluctuate and you must avoid throttling without manual provisioning changes.
- ✗
DynamoDB Streams
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB Streams captures an ordered log of item-level changes for event-driven processing, such as triggering AWS Lambda on writes; it does not delete items. It is tempting because it reacts to item activity, but expiry requires TTL, which marks items with a timestamp attribute and removes them automatically after 24 hours.
- ✗
Point-in-time recovery
Why it's wrong here
Point-in-time recovery restores a table to any second within the preceding 35 days; it never deletes individual items, so sessions would persist indefinitely. It is tempting because it protects against accidental writes or deletions, and would be the right choice when continuous backup and restore capability is required rather than scheduled item expiry.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every DEA-C01 question from scratch — 1,321 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on DEA-C01
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. 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?
easy- ✓ A.Time to Live (TTL)
- B.DynamoDB Streams
- C.Global Tables
- D.Point-in-Time Recovery
Why A: 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.
JA
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.