DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A data engineer at a media company is managing an Amazon RDS for MySQL database that stores user profiles and preferences. The database has been running on a db.r5.large instance with 500 GB of General Purpose SSD (gp2) storage. Recently, the application team has noticed increased query latency during peak hours. Amazon CloudWatch metrics show that the ReadIOPS metric is consistently peaking at 5,000 IOPS, which is near the baseline performance of the gp2 volume (1,500 IOPS baseline for 500 GB, but with bursts up to 3,000 IOPS for short periods). The database is not CPU-bound, and memory utilization is moderate. The data engineer needs to resolve the I/O bottleneck with minimal cost increase. The company is open to changing the storage type or instance class, but wants to avoid over-provisioning. What should the data engineer do?
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) and set the provisioned IOPS to 5,000.
Gp3 provides a baseline of 3,000 IOPS at no additional cost and allows provisioning additional IOPS independently. Setting provisioned IOPS to 5,000 gives the required performance without the burst limitations of gp2 and at a lower cost than io1. Option B is incorrect because Multi-AZ does not improve read IOPS; the standby is not used for reads. Option C is incorrect because io1 would be more expensive than gp3 for the same IOPS. Option D is incorrect because upgrading the instance class adds memory and compute, which does not directly improve IOPS, and would increase cost unnecessarily.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Change the storage type to General Purpose SSD (gp3) and set the provisioned IOPS to 5,000.
Why this is correct
gp3 provides a baseline of 3,000 IOPS and can be scaled up to 5,000 at lower cost than io1.
- ✗
Enable Multi-AZ deployment to offload reads to the standby instance.
Why it's wrong here
Multi-AZ standby is not used for reads; it's for failover.
- ✗
Change the storage type to Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1) and provision 5,000 IOPS.
Why it's wrong here
io1 is more expensive than gp3 for the same IOPS.
- ✗
Upgrade the instance to a db.r5.xlarge to get more memory and reduce I/O.
Why it's wrong here
More memory does not directly increase IOPS; the bottleneck is I/O, not memory.
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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 RDS for SQL Server with Multi-AZ. The database has a 500 GB data file and 100 GB log file. The application experiences high latency during peak hours. Monitoring shows high WriteIOPS on the primary. Which change will reduce latency without losing the ability to failover?
hard- A.Reduce the log file size by changing recovery model
- ✓ B.Increase the provisioned IOPS on the RDS instance
- C.Create a Read Replica in a different Availability Zone
- D.Switch to Multi-AZ with two readable standbys
Why B: The high WriteIOPS on the primary indicates that the storage layer is saturated, causing latency. Increasing provisioned IOPS on the RDS instance directly addresses the bottleneck by providing more I/O capacity, and since Multi-AZ is already enabled, the standby remains synchronized and failover capability is preserved.
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.