The answer is that the table has reached the per-table throughput limit for on-demand mode. DynamoDB on-demand capacity mode imposes a soft limit of 40,000 read and 40,000 write units per second per table, and when sustained traffic exceeds this ceiling, the service throttles requests regardless of adaptive capacity or DAX. This concept is a frequent trap on the AWS Certified Database Specialty DBS-C01 exam, where candidates often overlook that on-demand is not truly unlimited—it has a hard per-table throttling limit that must be raised via a Service Quota increase. The exam tests your understanding that while adaptive capacity can rebalance hot partitions, it cannot override the table-level cap, and DAX only caches reads, not writes. Memory tip: think of the on-demand limit as a “40k glass ceiling”—once sustained traffic hits it, throttling is inevitable.
DBS-C01 Monitoring and Troubleshooting Practice Question
This DBS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of monitoring and troubleshooting. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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 uses Amazon DynamoDB for a highly transactional application. The application is experiencing increased latency and throttled requests. The operations team notices that the DynamoDB table's read and write capacity utilization is consistently near 100%. The table uses on-demand capacity mode. What is the MOST likely cause of the throttling?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "most likely"
Why it matters: Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The table has reached the per-table throughput limit for on-demand mode.
Option D: On-demand mode has a per-table throughput limit (e.g., 40,000 read/write units per second). When sustained traffic exceeds that, requests are throttled. Option A: Global tables replicate writes to other regions but do not cause throttling. Option B: DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) reduces latency but can still see throttling if the table itself is throttled. Option C: Adaptive capacity automatically scales partitions but cannot exceed the on-demand limit.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✓
The table has reached the per-table throughput limit for on-demand mode.
Why this is correct
On-demand mode has a maximum throughput per table; exceeding it causes throttling.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "most likely" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
The table is configured as a global table and cross-region replication is causing write conflicts.
Why it's wrong here
Global tables can cause conflicts but not throttling.
✗
The application is not using DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) to cache reads.
Why it's wrong here
DAX helps with read latency but cannot prevent throttling if write capacity is exceeded.
✗
The table's partition key design is causing hot partitions, and adaptive capacity is not enabled.
Why it's wrong here
Adaptive capacity is always enabled for on-demand, so hot partitions are handled.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
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
How to think about this question
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.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
→Underline the problem statement mentally.
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
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.
Monitoring and Troubleshooting — This question tests Monitoring and Troubleshooting — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: The table has reached the per-table throughput limit for on-demand mode. — Option D: On-demand mode has a per-table throughput limit (e.g., 40,000 read/write units per second). When sustained traffic exceeds that, requests are throttled. Option A: Global tables replicate writes to other regions but do not cause throttling. Option B: DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) reduces latency but can still see throttling if the table itself is throttled. Option C: Adaptive capacity automatically scales partitions but cannot exceed the on-demand limit.
What should I do if I get this DBS-C01 question wrong?
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.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "most likely". Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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