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Question 1,030 of 1,730

Workload-Specific Database Design →mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

Social Graph Traversals with Amazon Neptune for Friend-of-Friend Queries

This DBS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of workload-specific database design. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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 is designing a database for a social media application that needs to handle friend-of-friend queries and recommendation engine traversals. Which AWS database is best suited?

A
Amazon DynamoDB
Why wrong: Not designed for graph traversals; would require multiple queries.
B
Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility)
Why wrong: Document database, not optimized for graph queries.
C
Amazon ElastiCache for Redis
Why wrong: Cache, not a persistent graph database.
D
Amazon Neptune
Graph database optimized for traversals and relationships.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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

✓

Amazon Neptune

Amazon Neptune is a fully managed graph database service optimized for storing and querying highly connected data. It supports both property graph (Apache TinkerPop/Gremlin) and RDF (SPARQL) models, making it ideal for friend-of-friend queries and recommendation engine traversals that require navigating complex relationships with low latency.

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.

✗
Amazon DynamoDB
Why it's wrong here
Not designed for graph traversals; would require multiple queries.
✗
Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility)
Why it's wrong here
Document database, not optimized for graph queries.
✗
Amazon ElastiCache for Redis
Why it's wrong here
Cache, not a persistent graph database.
✓
Amazon Neptune
Why this is correct
Graph database optimized for traversals and relationships.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

The trap here is that candidates often choose DynamoDB or ElastiCache because they associate social media with key-value or in-memory caching, overlooking that graph databases are specifically designed for relationship-heavy traversals like friend-of-friend queries.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

Under the hood, Neptune uses a purpose-built storage engine that maintains adjacency lists and indexes to enable constant-time traversal of edges, which is critical for friend-of-friend queries that may require traversing multiple hops (e.g., depth-3 or depth-4). In a real-world social media application, Neptune can execute a Gremlin query like `g.V('user123').repeat(out('friend')).times(2).dedup()` to find friends-of-friends in milliseconds, whereas a relational or NoSQL database would require multiple round trips and client-side graph construction. Neptune also supports ACID transactions and can handle up to 100,000 queries per second with sub-millisecond latency for simple traversals.

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.

TExam Day Tips

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 cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.

What to study next

Got this wrong? Here's your next step.

Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.

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FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this DBS-C01 question test?

Workload-Specific Database Design — This question tests Workload-Specific Database Design — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Amazon Neptune — Amazon Neptune is a fully managed graph database service optimized for storing and querying highly connected data. It supports both property graph (Apache TinkerPop/Gremlin) and RDF (SPARQL) models, making it ideal for friend-of-friend queries and recommendation engine traversals that require navigating complex relationships with low latency.

What should I do if I get this DBS-C01 question wrong?

Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.

What is the key concept behind this question?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

About these practice questions

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Same concept, more angles

2 more ways this is tested on DBS-C01

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 designing a database for a social media application that requires low-latency access to user profiles and support for complex graph queries. Which AWS database service is most suitable for this workload?

medium

A.Amazon DynamoDB
B.Amazon ElastiCache for Redis
✓ C.Amazon Neptune
D.Amazon RDS for MySQL

Why C: Amazon Neptune is a fully managed graph database service optimized for storing and querying highly connected data. It supports both property graph (Apache TinkerPop/Gremlin) and RDF (SPARQL) models, making it the ideal choice for social media applications that require low-latency traversal of complex relationships, such as friend-of-friend recommendations or influence paths.

Variation 2. A company is designing a database for a social media application that requires storing user profiles, posts, and follower relationships. The application needs low-latency queries for user timelines and social graph traversals. Which TWO AWS database services should the database specialist consider? (Choose TWO.)

easy

A.Amazon Timestream
✓ B.Amazon Neptune
C.Amazon Redshift
D.Amazon RDS for MySQL
✓ E.Amazon DynamoDB

Why B: Amazon Neptune is a fully managed graph database service optimized for storing and querying highly connected data, such as social graphs. It supports property graph and RDF models, enabling low-latency traversals of follower relationships and user timelines using Gremlin or SPARQL queries.

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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.