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Refer to the Exhibit Practice Questions

Practise AWS Certified Database Specialty DBS-C01 practice questions — original exam-style scenarios covering every exam domain, with detailed explanations, wrong-answer analysis, and common exam traps.

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DBS-C01
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Amazon Web Services
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Scenario guide

How to approach refer to the exhibit practice questions

Practise exhibit-style questions that ask you to read a topology, table, command output or diagram before choosing the best answer.

Quick answer

Exhibit-style questions test whether you can read a topology, command output, diagram or table before choosing the best answer.

How to extract the relevant detail from an exhibit.

How topology, command output or routing information affects the answer.

How to avoid answering from memory before reading the evidence.

How to map the exhibit back to the exam objective.

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Related DBS-C01 topic practice pages

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Practice set

Practice scenarios

Question 1hardmultiple choice
Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. A security engineer has applied this key policy to a customer managed KMS key used to encrypt a Secrets Manager secret containing database credentials. An application running on an Amazon EC2 instance in the same account and region is unable to decrypt the secret. What is the MOST likely cause?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": "kms:Decrypt",
      "Resource": "arn:aws:kms:us-east-1:123456789012:key/abc12345-...",
      "Condition": {
        "StringEquals": {
          "kms:ViaService": "secretsmanager.us-east-1.amazonaws.com",
          "kms:CallerAccount": "123456789012"
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}
Question 2hardmultiple choice
Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. A developer reports that the RDS MySQL instance 'mydb' is experiencing high write latency. The storage is gp2 with 100 GB. What is the MOST likely cause of the write latency?

Network Topology
$ aws rds describe-db-instancesdb-instance-identifier mydbRefer to the exhibit."DBInstances": ["DBInstanceIdentifier": "mydb","DBInstanceClass": "db.r5.large","Engine": "mysql","DBInstanceStatus": "available","MasterUsername": "admin","Endpoint": {"Address": "mydb.abcdef123456.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com","Port": 3306},"AllocatedStorage": 100,"StorageType": "gp2","Iops": null,"MultiAZ": false,"ReadReplicaSourceDBInstanceIdentifier": null,"ReadReplicaDBInstanceIdentifiers": []
Question 3mediummultiple choice
Full question →

A company uses the IAM policy shown in the exhibit to control access to a DynamoDB table. The table has a partition key user_id and a sort key timestamp. The application uses the AWS SDK to query items. When a user tries to query items with a filter condition, they receive an AccessDeniedException. What is the most likely cause?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

IAM policy document (CloudFormation snippet):
{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "dynamodb:GetItem",
        "dynamodb:Query",
        "dynamodb:Scan"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:dynamodb:us-east-1:123456789012:table/mytable",
      "Condition": {
        "ForAllValues:StringEquals": {
          "dynamodb:LeadingKeys": ["user_${aws:userid}"]
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}
Question 4mediummultiple choice
Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. An application team notices that the MySQL RDS instance 'mydb' is running at 80% CPU utilization during peak hours. They need to improve read performance without increasing the CPU load on the primary instance. Which action should they take?

Network Topology
aws rds describe-db-instancesdb-instance-identifier mydbRefer to the exhibit.```"DBInstances": ["DBInstanceIdentifier": "mydb","DBInstanceClass": "db.r5.large","Engine": "mysql","DBInstanceStatus": "available","MasterUsername": "admin","Endpoint": {"Address": "mydb.123456789012.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com","Port": 3306},"AllocatedStorage": 100,"StorageType": "gp2","VpcSecurityGroups": [{"VpcSecurityGroupId": "sg-12345678", "Status": "active"}],"DBSubnetGroup": {"DBSubnetGroupName": "default","Subnets": [{"SubnetIdentifier": "subnet-11111111", "SubnetAvailabilityZone": "us-east-1a"},{"SubnetIdentifier": "subnet-22222222", "SubnetAvailabilityZone": "us-east-1b"}"MultiAZ": false,"ReadReplicaSourceDBInstanceIdentifier": null,"BackupRetentionPeriod": 7
Question 5mediummultiple choice
Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. A company uses this DynamoDB table to store user session data. The application frequently queries by user_id alone to get all sessions for a user. However, the query is slow. What is the most likely cause?

Network Topology
aws dynamodb describe-tabletable-name UserSessions"Table": {"TableName": "UserSessions","KeySchema": [{"AttributeName": "session_id", "KeyType": "HASH"},{"AttributeName": "user_id", "KeyType": "RANGE"}],"AttributeDefinitions": [{"AttributeName": "session_id", "AttributeType": "S"},{"AttributeName": "user_id", "AttributeType": "S"}"ProvisionedThroughput": {"ReadCapacityUnits": 5,"WriteCapacityUnits": 5},"TableSizeBytes": 5000000,"ItemCount": 10000
Question 6mediummultiple choice
Full question →

A database administrator is troubleshooting a slow-performing query on an Amazon RDS for MySQL instance. The slow query log shows the above entry. Based on the exhibit, which index would most improve the query performance?

Network Topology
aws rds describe-db-log-filesdb-instance-identifier mydbfilename slowquery.logRefer to the exhibit.```# Log output:# Time: 2023-09-01T10:15:22.123Z# SET timestamp=1693577722
Question 7mediummultiple choice
Full question →

An application is receiving the error shown in the exhibit. The application uses connection pooling. The RDS instance is a db.r5.large with max_connections set to 1000. What is the most likely cause?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

Error log from application connecting to Amazon RDS for MySQL:
"ERROR 1040 (08004): Too many connections"

Current RDS configuration: db.r5.large, max_connections = 1000 (default).
Question 8mediummultiple choice
Full question →

A data analyst reports that a nightly ETL job to Amazon Redshift is failing with timeout errors shown in the exhibit. The cluster is a dc2.large with 2 nodes. The ETL job inserts large volumes of data. What is the most likely cause?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

CloudWatch Logs snippet:
"2023-01-15T10:00:00Z [ERROR] ... Timeout error while writing to Amazon Redshift cluster."

Cluster configuration: dc2.large, 2 nodes, RA3 nodes not used.
Question 9hardmultiple choice
Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. The exhibit shows CloudWatch metrics from an Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL instance. The application is experiencing slow query performance. Which is the most likely cause?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

```json
{
  "MemoryReservation": {
    "Value": 500
  },
  "MemoryUsage": {
    "Value": 450
  },
  "ActiveTransactions": {
    "Value": 20
  },
  "DatabaseConnections": {
    "Value": 100
  },
  "ReadIOPS": {
    "Value": 5000
  },
  "WriteIOPS": {
    "Value": 2000
  },
  "ReadLatency": {
    "Value": 2.5
  },
  "WriteLatency": {
    "Value": 5.0
  }
}
```
The exhibit shows CloudWatch metrics from an Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL instance (db.r5.large, 16 GB memory, 5000 provisioned IOPS). The application is experiencing slow query performance.
Question 10mediummultiple choice
Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. A CloudFormation stack was deployed to create an RDS instance. The application team reports they cannot connect to the database using the endpoint provided. The security group allows inbound traffic on port 3306 from the application's security group. What is the most likely cause?

Network Topology
aws cloudformation describe-stacksstack-name MyStackquery "Stacks[0].Outputs"Refer to the exhibit.```"OutputKey": "RDSEndpoint","OutputValue": "mydb.c9abcdefghi.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com","Description": "RDS endpoint"},"OutputKey": "DBName","OutputValue": "MyDB","Description": "Database name""OutputKey": "MasterUsername","OutputValue": "admin","Description": "Master username"
Question 11hardmultiple choice
Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. An application uses Cognito identity pools to authenticate users and dynamodb:LeadingKeys condition to restrict access to items where the partition key matches the user's sub. Some users report that they can see items belonging to other users. What is the most likely cause?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

```json
{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "dynamodb:GetItem",
        "dynamodb:PutItem",
        "dynamodb:UpdateItem",
        "dynamodb:DeleteItem"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:dynamodb:us-east-1:123456789012:table/Orders",
      "Condition": {
        "ForAllValues:StringEquals": {
          "dynamodb:LeadingKeys": [
            "${cognito-identity.amazonaws.com:sub}"
          ]
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}
```
Question 12hardmultiple choice
Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. A developer runs a DynamoDB query against a global secondary index. The index's partition key is 'status' and sort key is 'created_at'. There are many items with status 'PENDING' in the table. Why does the query return zero items?

Network Topology
expression-attribute-values '{ ":status": {"S": "PENDING"} }Query: aws dynamodb querytable-name ordersindex-name status-indexkey-condition-expression "#s = :status"expression-attribute-names '{"#s":"status"}'return-consumed-capacity TOTAL2024-07-15T10:30:00Z UTCRegion: us-east-1Table: ordersPrimary Key: order_id (String)GSI: status-index (status, created_at)Response:"Items": [],"Count": 0,"ScannedCount": 0,"ConsumedCapacity": {"TableName": "orders","CapacityUnits": 0.5
Question 13hardmultiple choice
Full question →

An IAM policy is attached to an application role that accesses a DynamoDB table named 'Orders'. The table has a global secondary index named 'OrderDateIndex'. The application needs to write new orders and query the index. Based on the exhibit, will the application be able to perform these operations?

Exhibit

Refer to the exhibit.

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "dynamodb:GetItem",
        "dynamodb:PutItem",
        "dynamodb:UpdateItem",
        "dynamodb:DeleteItem",
        "dynamodb:Query"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:dynamodb:us-east-1:123456789012:table/Orders"
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "dynamodb:GetItem",
        "dynamodb:Query"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:dynamodb:us-east-1:123456789012:table/Orders/index/OrderDateIndex"
    }
  ]
}
Question 14hardmultiple choice
Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. A DynamoDB table has a primary key of pk (partition key) and sk (sort key). An application needs to perform GetItem and Query operations but should only be allowed to retrieve the pk and sk attributes. The IAM policy above is applied to the application's IAM role. Why does the policy fail to achieve the goal?

Exhibit

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "dynamodb:GetItem",
        "dynamodb:Query",
        "dynamodb:Scan"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:dynamodb:us-east-1:123456789012:table/MyTable"
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Deny",
      "Action": "dynamodb:Scan",
      "Resource": "arn:aws:dynamodb:us-east-1:123456789012:table/MyTable",
      "Condition": {
        "ForAllValues:StringNotEquals": {
          "dynamodb:Attributes": ["pk", "sk"]
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}
Question 15easymultiple choice
Full question →

Refer to the exhibit. A developer wants to connect to the database. Which database engine is most likely being used?

Network Topology
aws rds describe-db-instancesdb-instance-identifier mydbquery 'DBInstances[0].[Endpoint.AddressRefer to the exhibit.```Output:"mydb.123456789012.us-east-1.rds.amazonaws.com",3306,"available"

These DBS-C01 practice questions are part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style DBS-C01 questions with detailed explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics.