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 needs a database for a serverless web application that stores user sessions. The sessions expire after 24 hours. The database must be highly available and require no server management. Which AWS service is most appropriate?
Amazon ElastiCache for Redis with cluster mode.
Why wrong: ElastiCache requires cluster management.
Amazon DynamoDB with TTL.
DynamoDB is serverless, highly available, and supports TTL.
Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL with Multi-AZ.
Why wrong: RDS requires instance management.
Amazon S3 with lifecycle policies.
Why wrong: S3 is not optimized for session storage.
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 DynamoDB with TTL.
Amazon DynamoDB with TTL is the most appropriate choice because it provides a fully managed, serverless, highly available NoSQL database that can automatically expire user sessions after 24 hours using the Time to Live (TTL) feature. DynamoDB's on-demand capacity mode eliminates server management, and its built-in replication across multiple Availability Zones ensures high availability without any manual intervention.
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 ElastiCache for Redis with cluster mode.
Why it's wrong here
ElastiCache requires cluster management.
Amazon DynamoDB with TTL.
Why this is correct
DynamoDB is serverless, highly available, and supports TTL.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL with Multi-AZ.
Why it's wrong here
RDS requires instance management.
Amazon S3 with lifecycle policies.
Why it's wrong here
S3 is not optimized for session storage.
Common exam traps
The trap here is that candidates often confuse ElastiCache for Redis as a 'database' for sessions, but the question explicitly requires 'no server management' and 'highly available' — DynamoDB is the only fully serverless, managed database option that meets all criteria, while ElastiCache still requires cluster management and is not serverless.
Detailed technical explanation
DynamoDB TTL works by automatically deleting items after a specified timestamp attribute (epoch time in seconds) without consuming write throughput or incurring additional cost; the deletion typically occurs within 48 hours of expiration but is designed for eventual consistency. In a real-world scenario, a serverless web application using AWS Lambda and API Gateway can directly read/write session data to DynamoDB with TTL, ensuring stale sessions are cleaned up without custom cron jobs or Lambda triggers.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
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 DynamoDB with TTL. — Amazon DynamoDB with TTL is the most appropriate choice because it provides a fully managed, serverless, highly available NoSQL database that can automatically expire user sessions after 24 hours using the Time to Live (TTL) feature. DynamoDB's on-demand capacity mode eliminates server management, and its built-in replication across multiple Availability Zones ensures high availability without any manual intervention.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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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