DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A retail company uses Amazon DynamoDB to store product catalog data. The table has a partition key of ProductID and a sort key of Category. The company needs to retrieve all products in a specific category, sorted by ProductID. Which operation should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming that a Scan with a filter or a Query on the base table can satisfy the access pattern, when in fact the base table's key schema does not support querying by Category with sorting by ProductID.
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
✓
Create a global secondary index (GSI) with Category as the partition key and ProductID as the sort key, then query the GSI.
To efficiently retrieve all products in a specific category sorted by ProductID, a global secondary index (GSI) is needed. The GSI should use Category as the partition key and ProductID as the sort key. This allows Query operations on the GSI to return the desired items in sorted order, leveraging DynamoDB's indexing capabilities for performance and cost efficiency.
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 (GSI) with Category as the partition key and ProductID as the sort key, then query the GSI.
Why this is correct
A GSI allows querying on non-primary key attributes. By setting Category as the partition key and ProductID as the sort key, you can efficiently query all products in a category, sorted by ProductID. This is the optimal solution for this access pattern.
- ✗
Scan the table with a filter expression on Category.
Why it's wrong here
Scan reads every item in the table and then filters, which is inefficient and costly for large tables. It does not leverage the sort key for ordering. While it can retrieve items by Category, it does not provide sorted results by ProductID without additional processing.
- ✗
Query the table using the partition key and sort key condition.
Why it's wrong here
Query requires the partition key value. Here, the partition key is ProductID, not Category. To retrieve by Category, you would need to scan or use a GSI. Querying with ProductID and Category would not return all products in a category unless the partition key is Category.
- ✗
Use the BatchGetItem operation with Category as a key.
Why it's wrong here
BatchGetItem retrieves items by primary key (ProductID and Category). It cannot retrieve all items for a given Category because the primary key includes ProductID. It requires specifying both keys, so it cannot fetch a list of products by category alone.
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
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.