DBS-C01 Workload-Specific Database Design Practice Question
A financial services company needs to store trade data with strong consistency, high durability, and the ability to run complex SQL queries on the data. The data volume is 10 TB and grows by 1 GB per day. Queries must return results in less than 5 seconds. Which database solution best meets these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently choose Amazon Redshift because of its reputation for handling large data volumes and complex queries, but they overlook the requirement for strong consistency and sub-5-second latency on transactional data, which Redshift's columnar storage and distributed architecture are not optimized for.
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
✓
Amazon Aurora
Amazon Aurora is the correct choice because it is a fully relational, ACID-compliant database that provides strong consistency, high durability (6-way replication across 3 AZs), and supports complex SQL queries. With 10 TB of data and 1 GB/day growth, Aurora can scale storage automatically up to 128 TB and, using features like Aurora Serverless or provisioned instances with read replicas, can achieve sub-5-second query performance for complex analytical queries when properly indexed and optimized.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon DynamoDB
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB does not support complex SQL queries natively.
- ✗
Amazon DocumentDB
Why it's wrong here
DocumentDB is a document database, not optimized for complex joins.
- ✓
Amazon Aurora
Why this is correct
Aurora provides strong consistency, durability, and full SQL support.
- ✗
Amazon Redshift
Why it's wrong here
Redshift is for data warehousing, not transactional workloads.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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