DBS-C01 Management and Operations Practice Question
A company uses Amazon DynamoDB with on-demand capacity mode for a critical application. During a marketing campaign, the application experienced throttled requests despite the on-demand mode. The table has a single partition key. The database specialist notices that the throttling occurs sporadically even though overall traffic is within limits. What is the most likely cause?
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
✓
The table's partition key is causing a hot partition, leading to throttling on that partition.
On-demand mode accommodates traffic spikes, but if a single partition key is used, all traffic goes to one partition. DynamoDB partitions data by partition key; a single hot key can throttle requests even if overall throughput is within limits. Provisioned capacity is not used. Auto scaling is not relevant. The partition limit is a hard limit.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The table's provisioned capacity is set too low.
Why it's wrong here
On-demand mode does not use provisioned capacity.
- ✓
The table's partition key is causing a hot partition, leading to throttling on that partition.
Why this is correct
A single partition key can cause hot partitions; DynamoDB's on-demand mode partitions data, but a single hot key can still throttle.
- ✗
The table's auto scaling is not configured correctly.
Why it's wrong here
Auto scaling is for provisioned capacity, not on-demand.
- ✗
The application is exceeding the DynamoDB account-level throughput limits.
Why it's wrong here
Account-level limits are high; on-demand mode automatically scales.
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.