DBS-C01 Workload-Specific Database Design Practice Question
A company is migrating a large Oracle data warehouse to AWS. The warehouse contains 50 TB of data and runs complex analytical queries. The solution must support concurrency of up to 100 users and provide high performance for queries. Which THREE design decisions should the company make? (Choose three.)
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse Amazon RDS for Oracle (an OLTP database) with a suitable data warehouse solution, overlooking that Redshift’s columnar storage and MPP architecture are specifically designed for large-scale analytical workloads.
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
✓
Use distribution keys based on frequently joined columns
Distribution keys based on frequently joined columns ensure that related data is co-located on the same compute nodes, minimizing data movement across the network during joins. This is critical for complex analytical queries on large datasets in Amazon Redshift, as it reduces shuffle overhead and improves query performance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use distribution keys based on frequently joined columns
Why this is correct
Distribution keys enable parallel processing and reduce data movement.
- ✓
Design tables with columnar storage
Why this is correct
Columnar storage is efficient for analytical queries.
- ✗
Use Amazon RDS for Oracle with Multi-AZ
Why it's wrong here
RDS is for OLTP, not analytical workloads.
- ✗
Use Amazon DynamoDB with global tables
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB is NoSQL and not suitable for complex analytical queries.
- ✓
Use Amazon Redshift as the database engine
Why this is correct
Redshift is purpose-built for data warehousing and analytics.
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Same concept, more angles
2 more ways this is tested on DBS-C01
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company is migrating an on-premises Oracle data warehouse to AWS. The warehouse contains 20 TB of data and supports complex SQL queries with joins and aggregations. The migration should minimize downtime and require minimal changes to existing SQL queries. Which database service is MOST appropriate?
hard- A.Amazon RDS for Oracle
- B.Amazon DynamoDB
- C.Amazon ElastiCache for Redis
- ✓ D.Amazon Redshift
Why D: Amazon Redshift is the most appropriate choice because it is a fully managed, petabyte-scale data warehouse service designed for complex SQL queries with joins and aggregations. It supports standard SQL with minimal changes to existing queries, and its columnar storage and massively parallel processing (MPP) architecture are optimized for analytical workloads. The 20 TB data size and requirement to minimize downtime align with Redshift's ability to perform online resizing and use features like RA3 nodes with managed storage for elastic scaling.
Variation 2. A company is migrating an on-premises Oracle data warehouse to AWS. The warehouse contains 50 TB of data and runs complex queries that involve joins and aggregations. The team wants to minimize migration effort and cost while maintaining query performance. Which AWS service should they use?
medium- A.Amazon RDS for Oracle
- B.Amazon ElastiCache for Redis
- ✓ C.Amazon Redshift
- D.Amazon DynamoDB
Why C: Amazon Redshift is purpose-built for large-scale data warehousing, supporting up to petabytes of data with massively parallel processing (MPP) architecture that efficiently handles complex joins and aggregations. It minimizes migration effort by supporting automated schema conversion from Oracle via the AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT) and cost-effective columnar storage with compression, making it the optimal choice for a 50 TB Oracle data warehouse migration.
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.