The answer is to increase the allocated storage to 600 GB, which doubles the baseline IOPS from 900 to 1800 and resolves gp2 burst balance exhaustion in RDS. This works because gp2 volumes earn burst credits based on their size; a 300 GB volume has a baseline of only 900 IOPS, so once the BurstBalance drops to 0%, performance throttles to that low baseline, causing elevated ReadLatency and WriteLatency. On the AWS Certified Database Specialty DBS-C01 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of gp2’s credit-bucket mechanics versus provisioned IOPS costs—the common trap is to jump to io1 or add a read replica, but the most cost-effective fix is simply increasing gp2 storage to raise the baseline. Remember the memory tip: “Double the size, double the baseline—no credits required.”
DBS-C01 Monitoring and Troubleshooting Practice Question
This DBS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of monitoring and troubleshooting. 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 company runs a critical application on Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL with a Multi-AZ deployment. The application experiences intermittent connection timeouts and slow query performance. The CloudWatch metrics show that the 'ReadLatency' and 'WriteLatency' metrics are elevated during peak hours. The 'CPUUtilization' is consistently below 30%, and 'DatabaseConnections' is within limits. The 'BurstBalance' for the gp2 storage is frequently dropping to 0%. The DB instance is a db.r5.large with 300 GB of gp2 storage. The company wants to resolve the latency issues without significant cost increase. Which solution should the company implement?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Increase the allocated storage to 600 GB to increase baseline IOPS.
Option C: Increasing storage to 600 GB increases baseline IOPS from 900 to 1800, reducing reliance on burst credits. This is cost-effective compared to switching to io1. Option A: Increasing to io1 with 3000 IOPS would be more expensive. Option B: Adding a read replica does not help with write latency. Option D: Enabling Performance Insights only helps diagnose, not resolve.
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.
✗
Add a read replica to offload read traffic.
Why it's wrong here
Read replicas help with read latency, but the issue includes write latency.
✗
Enable Performance Insights to identify the root cause.
Why it's wrong here
Performance Insights is a diagnostic tool, not a solution to the bottleneck.
✗
Switch the storage type to io1 with 3000 provisioned IOPS.
Why it's wrong here
io1 costs more than gp2; increasing gp2 size is cheaper.
✓
Increase the allocated storage to 600 GB to increase baseline IOPS.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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
A startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
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: Increase the allocated storage to 600 GB to increase baseline IOPS. — Option C: Increasing storage to 600 GB increases baseline IOPS from 900 to 1800, reducing reliance on burst credits. This is cost-effective compared to switching to io1. Option A: Increasing to io1 with 3000 IOPS would be more expensive. Option B: Adding a read replica does not help with write latency. Option D: Enabling Performance Insights only helps diagnose, not resolve.
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.
What is the key concept behind this question?
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 →
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 using Amazon RDS for MySQL with Multi-AZ deployment. The application team reports that write latency has increased significantly over the past hour. CloudWatch shows elevated 'ReadLatency' and 'WriteLatency' metrics. The DB instance is a db.r5.large with 500 GB General Purpose SSD (gp2) storage. Which action is most likely to resolve the issue?
medium
A.Enable Multi-AZ deployment
B.Create a read replica to offload read traffic
✓ C.Increase the allocated storage size to 1,000 GB
D.Scale up the DB instance class to db.r5.xlarge
Why C: Option C is correct because elevated latency combined with gp2 storage suggests that the I/O credits are exhausted, causing throughput to drop to baseline. Increasing storage size increases baseline IOPS. Option A is wrong because Multi-AZ is already enabled. Option B is wrong because increasing instance size improves compute but does not address storage I/O limits. Option D is wrong because read replicas help read scaling but do not reduce write latency.
Last reviewed: Jun 20, 2026
Question Discussion
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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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