DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question
Which TWO actions are effective ways to monitor the health of an Amazon DynamoDB table? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
DEA-C01 often tests the difference between monitoring tools for DynamoDB; candidates might incorrectly assume that EC2 status checks or S3 inventory apply, or invent non-existent metrics like 'TableHealth'.
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
✓
Enable DynamoDB Streams and process with Lambda to detect failures.
Option C is correct because DynamoDB Streams captures item-level changes in near real time, and a Lambda consumer can inspect those records to detect anomalies or failed writes, providing an event-driven health signal for the table. Option D is correct because CloudWatch publishes DynamoDB metrics such as ConsumedReadCapacityUnits (and ConsumedWriteCapacityUnits), and alarms on these metrics reveal throttling or unexpected capacity consumption that indicates table health issues. Option A is wrong because S3 Inventory reports on S3 bucket objects, not DynamoDB table size or health. Option B is wrong because EC2 instance status checks only reflect the health of EC2 instances, not a managed DynamoDB table. Option E is wrong because DynamoDB does not expose a 'TableHealth' metric in CloudWatch; health must be inferred from real metrics like throttled requests, consumed capacity, and latency.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use AWS S3 inventory to track table size.
Why it's wrong here
S3 Inventory lists objects in a bucket and reports nothing about DynamoDB tables, so it cannot measure table size or health. It is tempting because inventory reports are a familiar monitoring artefact, and they are correct for auditing S3 storage at scale, not for DynamoDB capacity or throttling.
- ✗
Use EC2 instance status checks.
Why it's wrong here
EC2 status checks report hypervisor and instance reachability for EC2 instances only; DynamoDB is a fully managed service with no instance layer to check. They are tempting because status checks are a standard health signal, and they would be correct when monitoring the EC2 instances hosting an application that calls DynamoDB.
- ✓
Enable DynamoDB Streams and process with Lambda to detect failures.
Why this is correct
DynamoDB Streams capture item-level changes in near real time; processing them with Lambda lets you detect write failures, anomalies or unexpected patterns. This satisfies the monitoring requirement by providing change-level visibility that capacity metrics alone cannot reveal.
- ✓
Set up Amazon CloudWatch alarms on ConsumedReadCapacityUnits.
Why this is correct
CloudWatch alarms on ConsumedReadCapacityUnits directly satisfy the requirement to monitor table health by tracking provisioned throughput consumption. Sustained values approaching the table's capacity indicate throttling risk, alerting you before requests fail. This metric reflects read activity against provisioned limits, making it a precise, actionable health signal for DynamoDB.
- ✗
Monitor the 'TableHealth' metric in CloudWatch.
Why it's wrong here
CloudWatch publishes no TableHealth metric for DynamoDB; the available metrics are ConsumedReadCapacityUnits, ConsumedWriteCapacityUnits, ThrottledRequests, SuccessfulRequestLatency and similar. The name sounds authoritative, which tempts candidates, and a composite health metric would be correct if DynamoDB actually emitted one.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This DEA-C01 question is part of Courseiva's 1,321-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
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.