DBS-C01 Monitoring and Troubleshooting Practice Question
A company uses Amazon Aurora MySQL for its e-commerce platform. The DB cluster has one writer and two readers. Recently, the application started showing occasional deadlock errors during order processing. The error logs show: 'Transaction (Process ID 123) was deadlocked on lock resources with another process and has been chosen as the deadlock victim. Rerun the transaction.' The application retries three times before failing. The development team wants to reduce the likelihood of deadlocks. Which three actions should the team take? (Choose three.)
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
✓
Shorten the duration of transactions by committing frequently.
Reduces the time locks are held, decreasing contention. Option C uses a weaker isolation level (READ COMMITTED) that reduces locking overhead compared to REPEATABLE READ. Option E ensures transactions request locks in a consistent order, preventing cycle dependencies. Option B is incorrect because READ UNCOMMITTED can cause dirty reads and is not suitable for e-commerce order processing. Option D is incorrect because increasing retry attempts does not reduce the likelihood of deadlocks; it only allows more retries after a deadlock 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.
- ✓
Shorten the duration of transactions by committing frequently.
Why this is correct
Shorter transactions hold locks for less time, reducing the chance of conflicts.
- ✗
Switch to READ UNCOMMITTED isolation level to reduce locking.
Why it's wrong here
READ UNCOMMITTED can cause dirty reads and is not appropriate for e-commerce transactions.
- ✓
Use READ COMMITTED isolation level instead of REPEATABLE READ.
Why this is correct
READ COMMITTED reduces shared locks, lowering deadlock probability.
- ✗
Increase the number of retry attempts to 10.
Why it's wrong here
Retries do not prevent deadlocks; they only handle failures after they occur.
- ✓
Ensure that transactions access tables in the same order.
Why this is correct
Consistent access order prevents circular lock dependencies.
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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.