DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question

Network Topology

The exhibit shows the output of describe-table for a DynamoDB table. The application is experiencing throttling errors when reading data. What is the MOST likely cause?

⚠ Common exam trap

Many candidates confuse throttling with performance issues like hot partitions or inefficient queries, but the describe-table output directly shows low provisioned read capacity, making insufficient capacity the most likely cause.

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 table's provisioned read capacity is too low.

The describe-table output shows the table has provisioned read capacity set to 5, but the application is experiencing throttling errors. Throttling occurs when read requests exceed the provisioned read capacity units (RCUs). Increasing the read capacity or implementing retries with exponential backoff would resolve this. The throttling is directly caused by insufficient provisioned read capacity for the workload.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

✗
The sort key is not used correctly for queries.
Why it's wrong here
The sort key is used for sorting within a partition, but throttling is due to capacity.
✗
The table has a hot partition due to the HASH key.
Why it's wrong here
The schema shows user_id as HASH, which might be skewed, but the main issue is low read capacity.
✗
The table size is too large, causing slow reads.
Why it's wrong here
1 MB is very small.
✓
The table's provisioned read capacity is too low.
Why this is correct
5 RCUs is very low; if the application reads more than 5 RCUs, throttling occurs.

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DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question

Why each option matters

Option-by-option breakdown

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