DBS-C01 Management and Operations Practice Question
A company uses Amazon DynamoDB for a high-traffic gaming leaderboard. The table has a partition key of 'game_id' and a sort key of 'score'. During a tournament, the application experiences throttling on a single partition. The application uses strongly consistent reads. Which TWO actions should be taken to resolve the throttling and maintain performance?
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
✓
Redesign the partition key to include a random suffix to distribute writes across partitions.
The correct actions are A and D. Option A: Redesigning the partition key to include a random suffix (e.g., appending a shard number) distributes write traffic across multiple partitions, preventing a single hot partition from throttling. Option D: For a leaderboard, eventually consistent reads are sufficient for non-critical queries, reducing read capacity consumption and alleviating read-side throttling. Option B (DAX) only caches reads and does not help with write throttling. Option C (increasing RCU) addresses read capacity, not write distribution to fix the hot partition. Option E (GSI) creates a separate index but does not redistribute writes on the base table's primary partition.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Redesign the partition key to include a random suffix to distribute writes across partitions.
Why this is correct
A write-sharding pattern ensures even distribution of write traffic and avoids hot partitions.
- ✗
Enable DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) to cache the most frequently read items.
Why it's wrong here
DAX caches reads but does not reduce write traffic to the hot partition.
- ✗
Increase the provisioned read capacity units (RCU) for the table.
Why it's wrong here
Throttling is due to a hot partition, not insufficient overall capacity; increasing RCU does not solve the partition-level limit.
- ✓
Use eventually consistent reads for the leaderboard queries where possible.
Why this is correct
Eventually consistent reads consume half the read capacity, reducing overall read load and allowing more capacity for writes.
- ✗
Create a global secondary index (GSI) with a different partition key.
Why it's wrong here
GSI does not change the base table's partition key and does not distribute writes.
Visual reference
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.