DBS-C01 Workload-Specific Database Design Practice Question
This DBS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of workload-specific database design. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company is designing a database for a social media application that requires storing user profiles, posts, and follower relationships. The application needs low-latency queries for user timelines and social graph traversals. Which TWO AWS database services should the database specialist consider? (Choose TWO.)
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, such as social graphs. It supports property graph and RDF models, enabling low-latency traversals of follower relationships and user timelines using Gremlin or SPARQL queries.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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Amazon Timestream
Why it's wrong here
Timestream is for time-series data, not social media.
✓
Amazon Neptune
Why this is correct
Neptune is a graph database purpose-built for social graph traversals.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Amazon Redshift
Why it's wrong here
Redshift is a data warehouse, not suitable for real-time queries.
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Amazon RDS for MySQL
Why it's wrong here
RDS is relational and can be used but is not optimized for graph traversals.
✓
Amazon DynamoDB
Why this is correct
DynamoDB provides low-latency access for user profiles and posts.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates may choose Amazon RDS for MySQL (Option D) thinking relational databases can handle graph queries with joins, but they fail to recognize that Neptune provides native graph traversal performance that relational databases cannot match for deeply connected data.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Neptune uses a shared-storage architecture with up to 15 read replicas and automatic failover, providing high availability for graph workloads. Under the hood, it indexes vertices and edges using adjacency lists, enabling O(1) traversal of direct relationships, which is critical for real-time social graph features like 'friends of friends' recommendations. DynamoDB, with its partition-based key-value model, can store user profiles and posts efficiently, and when combined with secondary indexes and DAX caching, can achieve single-digit millisecond latency for timeline queries.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Workload-Specific Database Design — This question tests Workload-Specific Database Design — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Amazon Neptune — Amazon Neptune is a fully managed graph database service optimized for storing and querying highly connected data, such as social graphs. It supports property graph and RDF models, enabling low-latency traversals of follower relationships and user timelines using Gremlin or SPARQL queries.
What should I do if I get this DBS-C01 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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