DBS-C01 Workload-Specific Database Design Practice Question
A company needs to store and query a graph of relationships between users for a recommendation engine. The queries involve traversing multiple edges. Which AWS database service is most suitable?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to choose DynamoDB with adjacency lists (Option A) because they assume any NoSQL database can handle graphs, but they overlook the fundamental architectural mismatch: DynamoDB's partition-based access pattern cannot efficiently support multi-hop traversals without costly fan-out queries.
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 Neptune
Amazon Neptune is a fully managed graph database service purpose-built for storing and traversing highly connected data. It supports both property graph (Gremlin, openCypher) and RDF (SPARQL) models, making it ideal for recommendation engines that require multi-edge traversals across user relationships.
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 DynamoDB with adjacency list design
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB can model graphs but requires multiple round trips for deep traversals.
- ✓
Amazon Neptune
Why this is correct
Neptune is optimized for graph traversals and supports Gremlin and SPARQL.
- ✗
Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility)
Why it's wrong here
DocumentDB is document-oriented, not optimized for graph traversals.
- ✗
Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL with recursive CTEs
Why it's wrong here
Recursive CTEs can handle some graph queries but performance degrades with depth.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 1,663 original DBS-C01 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.