DBS-C01 Management and Operations Practice Question
A company uses Amazon DynamoDB for a real-time analytics application. The table is provisioned with 1000 RCU and 500 WCU. Recently, the application experienced throttling on reads during a marketing campaign. The 'ConsumedReadCapacityUnits' metric shows spikes up to 2000 RCU. The 'ReadThrottleEvents' metric is high. The table has a global secondary index (GSI) that is also throttled. The application uses eventually consistent reads. The team wants to minimize costs while preventing throttling. The campaign traffic is predictable and occurs for 2 hours each day. What should the team do?
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 with a scheduled scaling action to increase RCU during the campaign.
The traffic is predictable and occurs for 2 hours daily. Scheduled auto scaling can increase RCU during the campaign and reduce it afterward, minimizing cost while preventing throttling. Option A is incorrect because permanently increasing RCU to 2000 would waste capacity during the other 22 hours, increasing costs unnecessarily. Option B is incorrect because DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) adds cost and primarily caches base table reads, not global secondary index reads; the GSI is also throttled, so DAX may not fully resolve the issue, and scheduled scaling is more cost-effective for predictable patterns. Option D is incorrect because on-demand capacity mode is more expensive for predictable, sustained high traffic; auto scaling with a schedule is cheaper for this use case.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increase the provisioned RCU to 2000 permanently.
Why it's wrong here
This would overprovision capacity for most of the day, increasing costs.
- ✗
Implement DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) to cache reads.
Why it's wrong here
DAX reduces read latency but does not reduce RCU consumption; it still consumes RCU for cache misses.
- ✓
Enable auto scaling with a scheduled scaling action to increase RCU during the campaign.
Why this is correct
Auto scaling adjusts capacity automatically, and scheduled scaling ensures capacity is ready for the campaign, minimizing cost.
- ✗
Switch the table to on-demand capacity mode.
Why it's wrong here
On-demand is more expensive for predictable workloads because the cost per RCU/WCU is higher.
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