DBS-C01 Management and Operations Practice Question
A company has an Amazon DynamoDB table with on-demand capacity mode. The table experiences occasional spikes in traffic. During these spikes, some requests receive ProvisionedThroughputExceededException errors. The company wants to minimize these errors without changing the application. Which solution should be used?
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
✓
Switch the table to provisioned capacity mode and enable auto scaling.
DynamoDB on-demand mode automatically scales based on traffic volume, but it has a per-partition throughput limit. During sudden traffic spikes, this limit can be exceeded, causing ProvisionedThroughputExceededException errors. Switching to provisioned capacity mode with auto scaling allows you to set a higher baseline capacity and automatically scale up to handle bursts, reducing the likelihood of hitting per-partition limits. Option B (DAX) only helps with read caching, not write throughput. Option C (manually increasing capacity) is not applicable in on-demand mode and would not auto-scale. Option D (global tables) replicates data across regions for disaster recovery, not for increasing throughput in a single region.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Switch the table to provisioned capacity mode and enable auto scaling.
Why this is correct
Provisioned capacity with auto scaling can handle burst traffic more effectively than on-demand in some cases.
- ✗
Enable DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) for caching.
Why it's wrong here
DAX caches reads, not writes; it does not address write throughput errors.
- ✗
Increase the read and write capacity units manually.
Why it's wrong here
On-demand mode does not use capacity units; manual scaling is not possible.
- ✗
Use DynamoDB global tables to distribute the load across multiple regions.
Why it's wrong here
Global tables replicate data, but do not increase per-partition throughput.
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This DBS-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 DBS-C01 exam.