Aurora Global Database for Low-Latency Cross-Region Reads
A company is deploying a new application that requires low-latency reads from a relational database across multiple AWS Regions. The application is read-heavy and can tolerate eventual consistency. Which deployment option meets these requirements?
Quick Answer
The correct choice is to deploy Amazon Aurora Global Database with a primary Region and read replicas in secondary Regions. This configuration meets the requirement for low-latency cross-region reads because Aurora Global Database uses dedicated, high-throughput network infrastructure to replicate data from the primary to secondary Regions with typical latency under one second, while read replicas in those secondary Regions serve local read traffic with minimal delay. Since the application is read-heavy and tolerates eventual consistency, this asynchronous replication model is ideal—it avoids the write latency penalty of synchronous replication across continents. On the AWS Certified Database Specialty DBS-C01 exam, this scenario tests your ability to distinguish between global read scaling solutions and single-Region high-availability options; a common trap is choosing RDS Multi-AZ, which only protects within one Region, or DynamoDB Global Tables, which is NoSQL. Remember the tip: “Global DB for global reads, Multi-AZ for local resilience.”
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse cross-Region read replicas in standard RDS with Aurora Global Database, not realizing that Aurora's dedicated global replication provides lower latency and better performance for multi-Region reads, or they may overlook the requirement for a relational database and choose DynamoDB Global Tables.
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
✓
Deploy Amazon Aurora Global Database with a primary Region and read replicas in secondary Regions.
Amazon Aurora Global Database is designed for low-latency global reads and disaster recovery, allowing up to five secondary Regions with dedicated read replicas that replicate data with a typical latency of under one second. This meets the requirement for low-latency reads across multiple Regions while tolerating eventual consistency, as reads from secondary Regions are eventually consistent with the primary.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Deploy Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL with Multi-AZ and read replicas in the same Region.
Why it's wrong here
Multi-AZ is within a region; does not provide cross-Region low-latency reads.
- ✗
Deploy a single Amazon RDS for MySQL instance with cross-Region read replicas.
Why it's wrong here
Cross-Region read replicas provide eventual consistency but may have higher latency than Aurora Global Database.
- ✓
Deploy Amazon Aurora Global Database with a primary Region and read replicas in secondary Regions.
Why this is correct
Aurora Global Database provides low-latency reads in secondary Regions with eventual consistency.
- ✗
Deploy Amazon DynamoDB Global Tables in multiple Regions.
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB is NoSQL, not relational.
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on DBS-C01
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 application that requires a relational database with automatic failover and cross-Region disaster recovery. The application is read-heavy and expects up to 10 GB of data. Which combination of AWS services should be used?
medium- A.Amazon RDS for MySQL with Multi-AZ and a read replica in another Region
- B.Amazon S3 with AWS Glue and Amazon Athena
- ✓ C.Amazon Aurora with Multi-AZ and an Aurora global database
- D.Amazon DynamoDB with global tables
Why C: Amazon Aurora with Multi-AZ provides high availability within a single Region, while Aurora Global Database enables cross-Region disaster recovery with typical replication latency of under one second. Aurora is optimized for read-heavy workloads and scales automatically, making it ideal for the 10 GB dataset and the application's requirements.
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.