CloudWatch Metrics for DynamoDB Throttling
A company is using Amazon DynamoDB with on-demand capacity. The operations team wants to monitor for throttled read requests. Which metric from Amazon CloudWatch should be used to set up an alarm for read throttling?
Quick Answer
The answer is ThrottledGetRecords and ThrottledPutRecords. These two CloudWatch metrics directly measure the number of read and write requests that DynamoDB rejected due to throttling, making them the precise indicators for monitoring throttled requests in any capacity mode, including on-demand. On the AWS Certified Database Specialty DBS-C01 exam, this question tests your ability to distinguish between metrics that report throttling events versus those that track capacity consumption or provisioning. A common trap is confusing ReadThrottleEvents or ProvisionedReadCapacityUnits with actual throttling metrics; remember that on-demand mode has no provisioned capacity, so only the Throttled* family of metrics applies. For a quick memory tip, think of the word “Throttled” as the direct prefix—if a metric name starts with “Throttled,” it’s your go-to for throttling alarms, while “Consumed” or “Provisioned” metrics serve different monitoring purposes.
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
✓
ReadThrottleEvents
'ReadThrottleEvents' is a CloudWatch metric that directly indicates throttled read requests on a DynamoDB table. For write throttling, the correct metric is 'WriteThrottleEvents', but it is not among the options given. Therefore, only one option correctly answers the question as revised.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
ConsumedWriteCapacityUnits
Why it's wrong here
ConsumedWriteCapacityUnits shows write capacity consumed, not throttling events.
- ✓
ReadThrottleEvents
Why this is correct
ReadThrottleEvents directly counts throttled read requests on the table.
- ✗
ThrottledPutRecords
Why it's wrong here
ThrottledPutRecords is a DynamoDB Streams metric, not related to table throttling.
- ✗
ProvisionedReadCapacityUnits
Why it's wrong here
ProvisionedReadCapacityUnits is for provisioned capacity and does not indicate throttling.
- ✗
ThrottledGetRecords
Why it's wrong here
ThrottledGetRecords is a DynamoDB Streams metric, not a table throttling metric.
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Variation 1. A company is using Amazon DynamoDB with on-demand capacity. The operations team notices that the number of throttled write requests has increased. Which metric should be monitored to determine if the table's write capacity is being exceeded?
medium- A.ThrottledWriteRequests
- ✓ B.WriteThrottleEvents
- C.ProvisionedWriteCapacityUnits
- D.ConsumedWriteCapacityUnits
Why B: 'WriteThrottleEvents' is the Amazon CloudWatch metric that directly indicates throttled write requests. Option A is wrong because 'ThrottledWriteRequests' is not a standard CloudWatch metric name (the correct name is WriteThrottleEvents). Option C is wrong because 'ProvisionedWriteCapacityUnits' is not applicable for on-demand capacity. Option D is wrong because 'ConsumedWriteCapacityUnits' shows actual usage, not throttling.
JA
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Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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