DVA-C02 Development with AWS Services Practice Question
A developer wants to deploy a containerized application on AWS. The application requires persistent storage that can be accessed by multiple containers running on different EC2 instances. Which AWS service should the developer use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse EBS with EFS, assuming EBS supports multi-instance access by default, but EBS volumes are single-instance attached unless using the limited multi-attach feature, which is not designed for general-purpose shared file system use.
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 Elastic File System (EFS)
Amazon EFS provides a fully managed, scalable, and elastic NFS file system that can be mounted concurrently on multiple EC2 instances across different Availability Zones. This makes it the ideal choice for a containerized application requiring shared persistent storage accessible by multiple containers running on different instances, as it supports the NFSv4.1 and NFSv4.0 protocols for simultaneous access.
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 Elastic File System (EFS)
Why this is correct
Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) provides a scalable, fully managed, shared file system that can be mounted by multiple container instances (e.g., running on EC2 or Fargate) simultaneously. This allows containerized applications to access common data, such as configuration files, user-generated content, or persistent state, ensuring data consistency and availability across all containers. Its POSIX compliance makes it suitable for traditional file system operations required by many applications.
- ✗
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)
Why it's wrong here
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) provides block-level storage volumes for use with individual EC2 instances. While highly performant and persistent, an EBS volume can only be attached to a single EC2 instance at a time, with specific exceptions like Multi-Attach for certain volume types, which is not a general-purpose shared file system. This fundamental limitation prevents multiple container instances from concurrently accessing the same underlying data store, making it unsuitable for shared storage requirements of a distributed containerized application.
- ✗
Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)
Why it's wrong here
Amazon S3 is an object storage service designed for storing and retrieving any amount of data from anywhere on the web. It operates on an object model, where data is stored as objects within buckets, not a traditional file system hierarchy with POSIX semantics. While S3 can store large amounts of data, it does not provide a mountable file system interface that containerized applications typically expect for shared persistent storage, making direct file system operations cumbersome or impossible without custom application logic.
- ✗
Amazon DynamoDB
Why it's wrong here
Amazon DynamoDB is a fast, flexible NoSQL database service designed for applications requiring consistent, single-digit millisecond latency at any scale. It is optimized for storing structured and semi-structured data in tables and does not offer file system capabilities or a mountable interface. Containerized applications needing shared file-based persistence cannot use a NoSQL database like DynamoDB as a direct substitute for a shared file system, as their data models and access patterns are fundamentally different.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.