DBS-C01 Workload-Specific Database Design Practice Question
Which TWO factors should be considered when designing a database for an IoT workload that ingests millions of sensor readings per second? (Choose 2.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse the need for consistency in transactional databases with the relaxed consistency models acceptable in high-throughput time-series IoT workloads, leading them to incorrectly select strong consistency or ACID transactions.
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
✓
Implement data retention and aggregation to reduce storage costs
IoT workloads generate massive volumes of data, and implementing data retention policies (e.g., automatically deleting raw data after a set period) combined with aggregation (e.g., downsampling sensor readings into hourly or daily averages) directly reduces storage costs. This is a core design pattern for time-series databases like Amazon Timestream, which supports automatic retention and aggregation via scheduled queries or rollups.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Ensure strong consistency for all reads
Why it's wrong here
IoT data often tolerates eventual consistency.
- ✗
Enforce ACID transactions for all writes
Why it's wrong here
ACID transactions are overkill for IoT data.
- ✓
Implement data retention and aggregation to reduce storage costs
Why this is correct
Storing raw data indefinitely is expensive; aggregation reduces volume.
- ✓
Use a time-series database for efficient storage and querying
Why this is correct
Time-series databases are optimized for high-frequency writes and range queries.
- ✗
Use a graph database to model relationships between sensors
Why it's wrong here
Graph databases are not necessary for sensor data.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.