DVA-C02 Strongly Consistent Read Practice Question
A developer is using Amazon DynamoDB as a data store for a serverless application. The application requires strongly consistent reads and must be able to recover from failures. Which THREE measures should the developer implement? (Choose THREE.)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap is confusing DAX (performance enhancement) with a recovery mechanism, or assuming DynamoDB has read replicas like RDS. Avoid selecting options that only improve performance or are not available for DynamoDB.
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
✓
Use the ConsistentRead parameter set to true in GetItem and Query operations.
Option A is correct because setting ConsistentRead to true on GetItem, Query, and Scan forces a strongly consistent read that returns the most up-to-date data instead of a possibly stale eventually consistent result. Option C is correct because DynamoDB global tables provide multi-region, active-active replication, allowing the application to continue serving reads and writes from another Region if one Region fails, which directly supports failure recovery. Option D is incorrect because DynamoDB Streams is a change-data-capture feature that records item-level changes for event-driven processing, replication, or auditing; it does not itself provide failure recovery or strongly consistent reads. Option B is incorrect because DynamoDB does not offer native read replicas as a standalone feature; read scaling is achieved through partitions, global tables, or DAX. Option E is incorrect because DAX is an in-memory write-through cache that serves eventually consistent reads by default and does not provide strongly consistent reads or cross-Region failure recovery.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use the ConsistentRead parameter set to true in GetItem and Query operations.
Why this is correct
Setting ConsistentRead to true forces DynamoDB to return the most up-to-date data by reading from the leader node, satisfying the strong consistency requirement for GetItem and Query. Without it, reads may return stale replicas, which the application cannot tolerate.
- ✗
Use DynamoDB read replicas to offload read traffic.
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB does not have read replicas; that is an RDS feature.
- ✓
Configure DynamoDB global tables for multi-region replication.
Why this is correct
Global tables replicate data across Regions with last-writer-wins conflict resolution, enabling the application to continue reading and writing if one Region fails. This satisfies the failure-recovery requirement, though it does not by itself provide strong consistency for reads.
- ✗
Enable DynamoDB Streams to capture changes.
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB Streams captures an ordered, time-stamped record of every item-level change, enabling replication or event-driven recovery workflows. This satisfies the resilience requirement by providing a durable change log that supports rebuilding or synchronising data after a failure.
- ✗
Implement DAX (DynamoDB Accelerator) for caching.
Why it's wrong here
Incorrect. DAX (DynamoDB Accelerator) is an in-memory cache that improves read performance but does not provide strong consistency or recovery from failures. It does not replicate data for disaster recovery.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
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This DVA-C02 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 DVA-C02 exam.