DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A company uses Amazon DynamoDB for a gaming leaderboard. The table has a partition key of 'game_id' and a sort key of 'score'. The read capacity is provisioned at 1000 RCUs. During peak hours, users report high latency when querying the top 10 scores for a specific game. The DynamoDB metrics show ConsumedReadCapacityUnits averaging 800 but occasional throttling. What is the most likely cause and solution?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates see 'ConsumedReadCapacityUnits averaging 800' and assume overall capacity is sufficient, missing that DynamoDB throttles at the partition level, not the table level, so a hot partition can be throttled even when table-level consumption is below provisioned RCUs.
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
✓
The hot game_id partition is exceeding its throughput; add DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) to cache reads
The hot game_id partition is exceeding its provisioned throughput because DynamoDB distributes RCUs evenly across partitions, and a single partition can only handle up to (1000 RCUs / number of partitions) per second. When a specific game_id becomes popular, all reads hit the same partition, causing throttling despite low overall consumed capacity. Adding DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) caches the top 10 scores for that partition, reducing read pressure and eliminating throttling without increasing RCUs.
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 global secondary index with the same key schema to distribute reads
Why it's wrong here
A GSI with the same keys would not solve the hot partition issue; it would still be throttled.
- ✗
Remove the sort key and use a global secondary index
Why it's wrong here
Removing the sort key would require a different access pattern; a GSI might help but adds complexity.
- ✗
Increase the provisioned RCUs to 2000
Why it's wrong here
This may help overall but does not address partition-level throttling; also costs more.
- ✓
The hot game_id partition is exceeding its throughput; add DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) to cache reads
Why this is correct
DAX caches frequent reads, reducing load on the hot partition and lowering latency.
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