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 needs to handle friend-of-friend queries and recommendation engine traversals. Which AWS database is best suited?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "best"
Why it matters: Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
Amazon DynamoDB
Why wrong: Not designed for graph traversals; would require multiple queries.
Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility)
Why wrong: Document database, not optimized for graph queries.
Amazon ElastiCache for Redis
Why wrong: Cache, not a persistent graph database.
Amazon Neptune
Graph database optimized for traversals and relationships.
Answer choices
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 (Apache TinkerPop/Gremlin) and RDF (SPARQL) models, making it ideal for friend-of-friend queries and recommendation engine traversals that require navigating complex relationships with low latency.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
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
Not designed for graph traversals; would require multiple queries.
Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility)
Why it's wrong here
Document database, not optimized for graph queries.
Amazon ElastiCache for Redis
Why it's wrong here
Cache, not a persistent graph database.
Amazon Neptune
Why this is correct
Graph database optimized for traversals and relationships.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often choose DynamoDB or ElastiCache because they associate social media with key-value or in-memory caching, overlooking that graph databases are specifically designed for relationship-heavy traversals like friend-of-friend queries.
Detailed technical explanation
Under the hood, Neptune uses a purpose-built storage engine that maintains adjacency lists and indexes to enable constant-time traversal of edges, which is critical for friend-of-friend queries that may require traversing multiple hops (e.g., depth-3 or depth-4). In a real-world social media application, Neptune can execute a Gremlin query like `g.V('user123').repeat(out('friend')).times(2).dedup()` to find friends-of-friends in milliseconds, whereas a relational or NoSQL database would require multiple round trips and client-side graph construction. Neptune also supports ACID transactions and can handle up to 100,000 queries per second with sub-millisecond latency for simple traversals.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
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
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FAQ
Workload-Specific Database Design — This question tests Workload-Specific Database Design — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Amazon Neptune — Amazon Neptune is a fully managed graph database service optimized for storing and querying highly connected data. It supports both property graph (Apache TinkerPop/Gremlin) and RDF (SPARQL) models, making it ideal for friend-of-friend queries and recommendation engine traversals that require navigating complex relationships with low latency.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Yes — watch for: "best". Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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.
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