Quick Answer
The answer is Amazon Aurora, which provides high availability and read scaling through its distributed cluster architecture. Aurora’s Multi-AZ deployment automatically replicates your 100 GB database across three Availability Zones, ensuring automatic failover with no data loss, while you can add up to 15 low-latency read replicas for read scaling without impacting write performance. On the AWS Certified Database Specialty DBS-C01 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of Aurora’s native separation of compute and storage, where the cluster volume handles replication transparently—a common trap is confusing RDS Proxy (connection pooling) or DAX (DynamoDB caching) with failover or read scaling features. Remember that Aurora’s storage is always Multi-AZ by design, so you don’t need a separate Multi-AZ option; think “Aurora = HA + replicas built in” to avoid picking extraneous services.
This DBS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of deployment and migration. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company is deploying a new application on AWS that requires a highly available relational database with automatic failover and read scaling. The database size is 100 GB and the workload is balanced between reads and writes. Which THREE AWS services or features should be used?
Multi-AZ deployment
Aurora automatically replicates data across AZs, providing failover.
DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX)
Why wrong: DAX is for DynamoDB, not Aurora.
Amazon Aurora Replicas
Aurora Replicas provide read scaling and failover support.
Amazon Aurora
Aurora provides high availability and performance.
Amazon RDS Proxy
Why wrong: RDS Proxy is for connection pooling, not failover.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
Multi-AZ deployment
Amazon Aurora provides high availability and read scaling with its cluster architecture. Read replicas can be added for read scaling. Multi-AZ deployment ensures automatic failover. Option A and C are correct; Option D is correct because Aurora itself provides Multi-AZ storage. Option B (RDS Proxy) is for connection pooling, not failover. Option E (DAX) is for DynamoDB caching.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Multi-AZ deployment
Why this is correct
Aurora automatically replicates data across AZs, providing failover.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX)
Why it's wrong here
DAX is for DynamoDB, not Aurora.
Amazon Aurora Replicas
Why this is correct
Aurora Replicas provide read scaling and failover support.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Amazon Aurora
Why this is correct
Aurora provides high availability and performance.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Amazon RDS Proxy
Why it's wrong here
RDS Proxy is for connection pooling, not failover.
Common exam traps
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Detailed technical explanation
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
Identify which DBS-C01 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
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FAQ
Deployment and Migration — This question tests Deployment and Migration — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Multi-AZ deployment — Amazon Aurora provides high availability and read scaling with its cluster architecture. Read replicas can be added for read scaling. Multi-AZ deployment ensures automatic failover. Option A and C are correct; Option D is correct because Aurora itself provides Multi-AZ storage. Option B (RDS Proxy) is for connection pooling, not failover. Option E (DAX) is for DynamoDB caching.
Identify which DBS-C01 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Same concept, more angles
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company is deploying a new multi-AZ Aurora MySQL database. The application requires read-heavy workloads and low latency. Which configuration will best meet these requirements?
mediumWhy C: Option C is correct because Aurora Auto Scaling dynamically adds reader instances based on the average CPU utilization metric, which directly addresses the read-heavy workload requirement by distributing read traffic across multiple replicas. This configuration ensures low latency by scaling out read capacity automatically as demand increases, without manual intervention.
Last reviewed: Jun 20, 2026
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.
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