DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question
A data engineer is monitoring an Amazon Redshift cluster using Amazon CloudWatch. The engineer notices that the 'WriteThroughput' metric is consistently below the provisioned IOPS for the cluster's EBS volumes. The query performance is slower than expected. Which action is MOST likely to improve write performance?
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
✓
Upgrade to a larger node type with more CPU and memory.
The 'WriteThroughput' metric being consistently below the provisioned IOPS indicates that the EBS volumes are not the bottleneck; the bottleneck is more likely insufficient compute resources (CPU/memory). Upgrading to a larger node type (e.g., from DC2 to RA3 or a higher node size) increases CPU and memory, which can improve query processing and write performance. Option A is incorrect because reducing concurrent queries may help with contention, but if the underlying node lacks resources, it won't fully address the low throughput. Option C is incorrect because sort keys primarily optimize read performance (e.g., range-restricted scans), not write throughput. Option D is incorrect because increasing IOPS on EBS volumes will not help when the provisioned IOPS are already not being fully utilized.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Reduce the number of concurrent queries to the database.
Why it's wrong here
May help if concurrency is high, but not directly related to low write throughput.
- ✓
Upgrade to a larger node type with more CPU and memory.
Why this is correct
Larger nodes provide more processing power, improving write throughput.
- ✗
Add sort keys to the tables to improve data distribution.
Why it's wrong here
Sort keys improve query performance, not write throughput.
- ✗
Increase the provisioned IOPS on the EBS volumes.
Why it's wrong here
IOPS are not saturated; increasing them will not improve performance.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every DEA-C01 question from scratch — 1,711 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 →
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.