DBS-C01 Monitoring and Troubleshooting Practice Question
A developer is troubleshooting an application that uses Amazon DynamoDB. The application is experiencing throttled requests (ProvisionedThroughputExceededException). Which CloudWatch metric should be monitored to troubleshoot this issue?
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
✓
ThrottledRequests
ThrottledRequests is a CloudWatch metric that directly counts the number of requests that were throttled due to exceeding provisioned throughput. For troubleshooting throttling issues, this metric provides immediate visibility into when throttling occurs. ConsumedWriteCapacityUnits (option D) shows capacity usage but does not directly indicate throttling; high consumption may lead to throttling but is not a direct measure. SuccessfulRequestLatency (option B) measures latency, not throttling, and UserErrors (option C) tracks client-side errors like invalid parameters, not capacity-related throttling.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
ThrottledRequests
Why this is correct
ThrottledRequests is a CloudWatch metric that directly counts the number of requests that were throttled due to exceeding provisioned throughput. Monitoring this metric helps identify when throttling is occurring.
- ✗
SuccessfulRequestLatency
Why it's wrong here
SuccessfulRequestLatency measures the time taken for successful requests, not throttling.
- ✗
UserErrors
Why it's wrong here
UserErrors tracks client-side errors like invalid parameters or authorization failures, not capacity-related throttling.
- ✗
ConsumedWriteCapacityUnits
Why it's wrong here
ConsumedWriteCapacityUnits shows the amount of write capacity used. While high consumption relative to provisioned capacity can cause throttling, it is not a direct measure of throttled requests; ThrottledRequests is more direct for troubleshooting the issue.
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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.