DBS-C01 Management and Operations Practice Question
A company is using Amazon DynamoDB with provisioned capacity and Auto Scaling. They notice that during a marketing campaign, write traffic exceeded the provisioned WCU and caused throttling. Auto Scaling increased the WCU, but the throttling persisted for several minutes. Which additional measure can prevent throttling during such predictable spikes?
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
✓
Configure a scheduled scaling action in Application Auto Scaling to increase WCU before the campaign.
Using Application Auto Scaling scheduled scaling allows pre-scaling capacity before the predictable spike, preventing throttling. Option A is incorrect because on-demand mode is for unpredictable traffic and may be costlier; for predictable spikes, scheduled scaling is more cost-effective. Option B is wrong because DAX is a caching layer for reads, not writes. Option C is wrong because simply increasing the maximum WCU does not pre-scale capacity; it only raises the upper limit that Auto Scaling can reach after throttling occurs.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Switch the table to on-demand capacity mode.
Why it's wrong here
On-demand handles spikes but may be more expensive; scheduled scaling is more cost-effective.
- ✗
Enable DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) to cache write requests.
Why it's wrong here
DAX does not cache writes.
- ✗
Increase the maximum provisioned WCU in the Auto Scaling policy.
Why it's wrong here
Increasing max doesn't pre-scale; it only allows scaling up to that limit.
- ✓
Configure a scheduled scaling action in Application Auto Scaling to increase WCU before the campaign.
Why this is correct
Scheduled scaling pre-provisions capacity for known traffic patterns.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
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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.