DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
Which THREE factors should a data engineer consider when choosing between Amazon RDS and Amazon DynamoDB for a new application? (Choose three.)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates mistakenly think encryption at rest or VPC isolation are exclusive to one service, when in fact both RDS and DynamoDB support these features, making them irrelevant as differentiators.
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
✓
Whether the workload requires serverless scaling.
Amazon RDS is a relational database service that requires provisioning and managing server capacity, while DynamoDB is a fully managed NoSQL key-value and document database that supports serverless scaling. Option A is correct because DynamoDB can automatically scale throughput capacity up or down based on traffic patterns, making it suitable for unpredictable workloads, whereas RDS requires manual scaling or the use of Auto Scaling with predefined policies.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Whether the workload requires serverless scaling.
Why this is correct
DynamoDB is serverless; RDS requires manual scaling.
- ✓
Whether the data model is relational or key-value.
Why this is correct
RDS is relational; DynamoDB is key-value.
- ✗
Whether the data must be encrypted at rest by default.
Why it's wrong here
Both offer encryption at rest.
- ✗
Whether the application requires VPC isolation.
Why it's wrong here
Both support VPC.
- ✓
Whether the application needs to scale horizontally for high throughput.
Why this is correct
DynamoDB scales horizontally; RDS typically scales vertically.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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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.