DBS-C01 Management and Operations Practice Question
A company runs an e-commerce platform using Amazon DynamoDB as the database. The table has a provisioned capacity of 5000 WCU and 3000 RCU. During a flash sale, the write traffic spikes to 8000 WCU for 10 minutes, causing significant throttling. The operations team notices that the table's WriteCapacityUnits metric shows 5000, but the ConsumedWriteCapacityUnits metric peaks at 4500. The application is experiencing errors and slow response times. The team wants to handle such spikes automatically without manual intervention and without over-provisioning. Which solution should be implemented?
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
✓
Enable DynamoDB Auto Scaling with a target utilization of 70% and a minimum capacity of 5000 WCU
DynamoDB Auto Scaling can adjust capacity based on demand, and setting a target utilization of 70% allows headroom for spikes. Option B is wrong because increasing provisioned WCU to 8000 permanently would be costly and result in over-provisioning during normal traffic. Option C is wrong because while SQS can buffer requests, it adds latency and does not solve the real-time throttling issue; it changes the architecture to async processing, which may not be acceptable for an e-commerce platform. Option D is wrong because switching to on-demand capacity mode would handle the spikes automatically but can be significantly more expensive for a workload with a predictable baseline, and the team wants to avoid over-provisioning costs.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Enable DynamoDB Auto Scaling with a target utilization of 70% and a minimum capacity of 5000 WCU
Why this is correct
Auto Scaling dynamically adjusts capacity to handle spikes while minimizing cost.
- ✗
Increase the provisioned WCU to 8000 permanently
Why it's wrong here
This over-provisions capacity when traffic is low, increasing cost.
- ✗
Implement an Amazon SQS queue to buffer write requests and process them asynchronously
Why it's wrong here
This introduces latency and complexity, and may not meet real-time requirements.
- ✗
Switch the table to on-demand capacity mode
Why it's wrong here
On-demand can handle spikes but may be more expensive for sustained high traffic.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every DBS-C01 question from scratch — 1,663 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. 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.