DBS-C01 Workload-Specific Database Design Practice Question
A company is designing a database for an IoT application that ingests millions of small sensor readings per second. The data is time-series and queries are mostly range scans over time. The company needs a cost-effective solution with high write throughput. Which AWS service should the database specialist recommend?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often default to DynamoDB for high-throughput workloads without recognizing that Timestream is the only AWS service purpose-built for time-series data, offering automatic tiering and optimized time-range queries that DynamoDB cannot match without complex custom sharding and indexing.
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 Timestream
Amazon Timestream is a purpose-built time-series database designed for IoT and operational applications that ingest millions of data points per second. It automatically manages storage tiers (in-memory and magnetic) to optimize cost, and its query engine is optimized for range scans over time, making it the most cost-effective and high-throughput choice for this workload.
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 Redshift with auto-ingest
Why it's wrong here
Redshift is a data warehouse, not suitable for real-time ingestion of millions of writes per second.
- ✓
Amazon Timestream
Why this is correct
Timestream is a serverless time-series database optimized for IoT data.
- ✗
Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL with pg_partman extension
Why it's wrong here
RDS is not designed for high-frequency time-series ingestion.
- ✗
Amazon DynamoDB with time-series data modeling
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB can be used but is less cost-effective and requires careful design.
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 |
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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.