DBS-C01 Management and Operations Practice Question
A company uses Amazon DynamoDB for a gaming application. During a new game launch, the table experiences throttling on write requests. The table has a provisioned capacity of 10,000 WCU and 5,000 RCU. The write traffic pattern shows spikes up to 15,000 WCU for 5 minutes. Which action would resolve the throttling with minimal cost impact?
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 Auto Scaling for DynamoDB with a target utilization of 70%
Auto Scaling for DynamoDB automatically adjusts provisioned write capacity based on actual traffic, handling spikes up to 15,000 WCU without manual intervention and minimizing cost by scaling down during low traffic. Option A is wrong: SQS buffers requests but does not directly resolve DynamoDB throttling; it adds latency and complexity. Option B is wrong: permanently increasing WCU to 20,000 is costly and wasteful for short spikes. Option D is wrong: DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) is an in-memory cache for read-heavy workloads, not for write throughput.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use Amazon SQS to buffer the write requests
Why it's wrong here
Using SQS buffers write requests but does not increase DynamoDB throughput; it adds latency and complexity, and the game may require low-latency writes.
- ✗
Increase the provisioned WCU to 20,000 permanently
Why it's wrong here
Permanently increasing WCU to 20,000 would cost double the base capacity, which is unnecessary for spikes lasting only 5 minutes and does not minimize cost.
- ✓
Enable Auto Scaling for DynamoDB with a target utilization of 70%
Why this is correct
Enabling Auto Scaling dynamically adjusts provisioned capacity based on traffic, handling spikes cost-effectively by scaling up during high demand and down during low demand.
- ✗
Enable DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) for the table
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) is an in-memory cache for read operations; it does not improve write throughput or solve write throttling.
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