DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A company uses Amazon DynamoDB for a gaming application. The application experiences throttling during peak hours. The table's read and write capacity is provisioned. Which TWO actions can reduce throttling?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse increasing provisioned capacity (Option C) as the only solution, but the exam tests whether you understand that auto scaling (Option B) is the correct managed approach, and that DAX (Option D) can reduce read throttling by caching, making both B and D valid together.
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
✓
Enable DynamoDB auto scaling for the table
DynamoDB auto scaling (Option B) automatically adjusts the provisioned read and write capacity based on actual traffic patterns, preventing throttling during peak hours without manual intervention. This is the correct action because it dynamically increases capacity when demand spikes and reduces it during low traffic, directly addressing the throttling issue.
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 TTL (time to live) on the table to automatically delete old items
Why it's wrong here
TTL helps with storage management, not throttling.
- ✓
Enable DynamoDB auto scaling for the table
Why this is correct
Auto scaling adjusts provisioned capacity based on traffic.
- ✗
Increase the provisioned read capacity units (RCUs)
Why it's wrong here
Increases read capacity only; writes may still throttle.
- ✓
Implement DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) to cache read requests
Why this is correct
DAX reduces read load on the table by caching frequently accessed items.
- ✗
Add a DynamoDB Global Table for the table
Why it's wrong here
Global Tables provide multi-region replication, not performance improvement.
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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 an e-commerce application. The application experiences sudden spikes in traffic, causing throttling errors. The data engineer needs to handle the spikes cost-effectively. Which solution should be used?
hard- A.Implement DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) to cache reads.
- B.Switch to DynamoDB on-demand capacity mode.
- ✓ C.Use DynamoDB auto scaling with a target utilization of 70%.
- D.Provision high read and write capacity units to handle peak traffic.
Why C: DynamoDB auto scaling with a target utilization of 70% allows the table to dynamically adjust provisioned read/write capacity based on actual traffic patterns, handling sudden spikes without manual intervention while avoiding over-provisioning. This balances performance and cost by scaling up during spikes and scaling down during low traffic, preventing throttling errors cost-effectively.
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.