DBS-C01 Workload-Specific Database Design Practice Question
A company is building a social network application that needs to store user profiles, friend relationships, and a feed of posts. The feed queries are complex, involving graph traversals (e.g., friends of friends). Which database is best suited for the relationship data?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently choose DynamoDB for its scalability or RDS for its familiarity with JOINs, failing to recognize that graph databases are purpose-built for relationship-heavy workloads and that the exam specifically tests the ability to match database types to query patterns.
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
✓
Amazon Neptune
Amazon Neptune is a fully managed graph database service optimized for storing and querying highly connected data. It supports both property graph and RDF models, and it uses graph traversal languages like Gremlin and SPARQL, making it ideal for complex friend-of-friend queries and social network relationship data.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon DynamoDB
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB is not efficient for graph traversals like friends-of-friends.
- ✗
Amazon RDS for MySQL
Why it's wrong here
Relational databases can model graphs but with complex and slow recursive queries.
- ✗
Amazon ElastiCache for Redis
Why it's wrong here
ElastiCache is a cache, not a durable database for relationship data.
- ✓
Amazon Neptune
Why this is correct
Neptune is a graph database purpose-built for traversing relationships.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.