DBS-C01 Workload-Specific Database Design Practice Question
A company uses Amazon RDS for SQL Server with a 4 TB database for a financial reporting application. The database performs nightly batch updates that take 6 hours. The company needs to reduce the batch update time to under 2 hours. The current instance is db.r5.8xlarge with 64 vCPUs and 512 GB memory. The batch process is I/O-bound with high write throughput. Which change will MOST effectively reduce the batch update time?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently assume adding more vCPUs or memory will speed up any slow process, but the question explicitly states the workload is I/O-bound, so the correct solution must address storage performance, not compute or memory.
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
✓
Switch to Provisioned IOPS (io2) with 80,000 IOPS.
The batch process is I/O-bound with high write throughput, so the bottleneck is disk I/O, not compute or memory. Switching to Provisioned IOPS (io2) with 80,000 IOPS provides a predictable, high-performance storage tier that can sustain the required write throughput, directly reducing the batch update time from 6 hours to under 2 hours. RDS for SQL Server on io2 volumes delivers consistent low-latency I/O, which is critical for write-heavy workloads.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Upgrade to db.r5.16xlarge with 128 vCPUs.
Why it's wrong here
vCPU is not the bottleneck.
- ✓
Switch to Provisioned IOPS (io2) with 80,000 IOPS.
Why this is correct
Eliminates I/O bottleneck with consistent performance.
- ✗
Increase the instance memory to 1024 GB.
Why it's wrong here
Does not directly improve I/O throughput.
- ✗
Enable Multi-AZ deployment.
Why it's wrong here
Does not improve write performance.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This DBS-C01 question is part of Courseiva's 1,663-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam 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.