DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
Which THREE factors should be considered when choosing a partition key for an Amazon DynamoDB table?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often think maximizing item size (Option A) or minimizing RCU consumption (Option D) are primary factors, when in fact even distribution and access pattern alignment are the critical design principles for DynamoDB partition keys.
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
✓
If the table has a write-heavy workload, the partition key should distribute writes evenly.
DynamoDB distributes data and request traffic across partitions based on the partition key. For write-heavy workloads, a partition key that evenly distributes writes prevents hot partitions, which can throttle requests and degrade performance. This ensures that no single partition exceeds its write capacity limit.
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 partition key should be chosen to maximize the size of items in each partition.
Why it's wrong here
Large items per partition can lead to hot partitions.
- ✓
If the table has a write-heavy workload, the partition key should distribute writes evenly.
Why this is correct
Even write distribution prevents throttling.
- ✓
The partition key should align with the most common query access pattern.
Why this is correct
Efficient queries use the partition key.
- ✗
The partition key should be chosen to minimize read capacity unit consumption.
Why it's wrong here
Read capacity units depend on item size, not partition key choice.
- ✓
The partition key should have high cardinality to distribute data evenly.
Why this is correct
High cardinality avoids hot partitions.
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