DBS-C01 Management and Operations Practice Question
A development team is using Amazon DynamoDB with on-demand capacity mode for a new application. During initial testing, they notice that write requests are occasionally throttled during traffic bursts. They have enabled DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) for read-heavy operations. What is the best recommendation to eliminate write throttling?
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
✓
Review the table's partition key design to avoid hot keys.
Write throttling in DynamoDB on-demand mode indicates a hot partition, often due to uneven partition key distribution. Reviewing and improving partition key design can eliminate hot keys and distribute write traffic evenly, preventing throttling. Option A is incorrect: while adaptive capacity helps, it does not fully resolve throttling from skewed access patterns. Option B is incorrect: provisioned capacity with Auto Scaling adds complexity but does not address hot partitions; on-demand already scales automatically. Option C is incorrect: DAX is a read cache and does not affect write operations; increasing DAX node size only improves read performance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable DynamoDB adaptive capacity to automatically adjust partition throughput.
Why it's wrong here
Adaptive capacity helps but may not fully resolve hot partitions.
- ✗
Switch to provisioned capacity mode with Auto Scaling.
Why it's wrong here
On-demand already handles spikes; throttling suggests a design problem.
- ✗
Increase the DAX cluster node size to handle more write traffic.
Why it's wrong here
DAX does not cache writes.
- ✓
Review the table's partition key design to avoid hot keys.
Why this is correct
Hot keys cause throttling even with on-demand.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
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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.