DBS-C01 Workload-Specific Database Design Practice Question
A company uses Amazon DynamoDB for a gaming application that stores player data. The application frequently accesses items by the player's user ID. However, the company also needs to query players by their subscription tier (Gold, Silver, Bronze) and registration date. Which design should the database specialist recommend for this access pattern?
⚠ Common exam trap
The DBS-C01 exam often tests the distinction between LSI and GSI, where candidates mistakenly choose LSI because they think it's the only index that can include multiple attributes, but they forget that LSI shares the base table's partition key and cannot be added after table creation.
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
✓
Create a Global Secondary Index (GSI) on subscription tier and registration date.
A Global Secondary Index (GSI) on subscription tier and registration date is the correct choice because it allows efficient querying on non-primary key attributes without affecting the base table's primary key structure. DynamoDB GSIs support eventually consistent reads and can be created on any table, enabling the required access pattern of querying players by subscription tier and registration date while maintaining the primary access pattern by user ID.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Export the data to Amazon Elasticsearch Service for querying.
Why it's wrong here
Exporting to Amazon Elasticsearch Service introduces operational overhead and eventual consistency delays that conflict with DynamoDB’s single-millisecond latency requirements for frequent player-ID lookups; the correct design uses a DynamoDB global secondary index on subscription tier and registration date to satisfy the query pattern without data movement. This option is tempting because Elasticsearch excels at full-text search and complex aggregations, making it a valid choice for log analysis or unstructured text queries, but the stem requires only structured, low-latency queries on indexed attributes.
- ✗
Create a Local Secondary Index (LSI) on subscription tier and registration date.
Why it's wrong here
LSI uses the same partition key as the base table, so it cannot query across all users.
- ✗
Enable DynamoDB Streams and process the stream to populate a separate table.
Why it's wrong here
Streams are for capturing changes, not for creating queryable indexes.
- ✓
Create a Global Secondary Index (GSI) on subscription tier and registration date.
Why this is correct
A GSI allows querying on different attributes with its own partition and sort keys.
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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.