This DBS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of management and operations. Examine the command output carefully: the correct answer depends on what the output actually shows, not on general recall alone. 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 database specialist runs the CLI command shown. The output indicates the instance is Multi-AZ and available. The application, however, is experiencing intermittent connection timeouts to the database endpoint. What is the most likely cause?
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.
A failover occurred due to a Multi-AZ event.
Failover causes transient connection timeouts until DNS updates.
The MySQL engine version is not supported.
Why wrong: MySQL 8.0.28 is a supported version.
The DB instance class is not available in the current region.
Why wrong: db.r5.xlarge is a standard instance class.
The database storage is full.
Why wrong: The instance status is 'available', not 'storage-full'.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
A failover occurred due to a Multi-AZ event.
Option A is correct because a Multi-AZ failover can cause transient connection timeouts if the application does not have proper retry logic. The instance status shows 'available', so storage is not full (eliminating D). MySQL 8.0.28 is a supported version (eliminating B). The instance class db.r5.xlarge is current generation and available in the region (eliminating C). Therefore, the intermittent timeouts are most likely due to a failover event.
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.
A failover occurred due to a Multi-AZ event.
Why this is correct
Failover causes transient connection timeouts until DNS updates.
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 MySQL engine version is not supported.
Why it's wrong here
MySQL 8.0.28 is a supported version.
The DB instance class is not available in the current region.
Why it's wrong here
db.r5.xlarge is a standard instance class.
The database storage is full.
Why it's wrong here
The instance status is 'available', not 'storage-full'.
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.
Management and Operations — study guide chapter
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FAQ
Management and Operations — This question tests Management and Operations — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: A failover occurred due to a Multi-AZ event. — Option A is correct because a Multi-AZ failover can cause transient connection timeouts if the application does not have proper retry logic. The instance status shows 'available', so storage is not full (eliminating D). MySQL 8.0.28 is a supported version (eliminating B). The instance class db.r5.xlarge is current generation and available in the region (eliminating C). Therefore, the intermittent timeouts are most likely due to a failover event.
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.
Yes — watch for: "most likely". Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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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's production RDS for PostgreSQL instance experienced a failover to the standby replica. After the failover, the application team reports that writes are failing with 'ReadOnlyException: Connection is read-only'. The DB instance status in the RDS console shows 'available'. Which action should the database administrator take to resolve the issue?
mediumWhy A: Option A is correct. After a Multi-AZ failover, the standby becomes the primary, and the old primary becomes a read-only standby. The application must update its connection string to use the new writer endpoint (which automatically points to the new primary) to perform writes. Option B is incorrect because creating a read replica and promoting it is unnecessary; Multi-AZ already provides a standby. Option C is incorrect because rebooting would force another failover but does not change the endpoint. Option D is incorrect because Multi-AZ is already enabled; modifying it again does not resolve the issue.
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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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