DVA-C02 Development with AWS Services Practice Question
A Lambda function needs temporary scratch space larger than the default while processing images. Which setting should be adjusted?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse ephemeral storage with memory allocation or external storage services, assuming that increasing the function's memory or using S3 will solve the scratch space issue, when the /tmp directory is the only directly configurable scratch space within the Lambda execution environment.
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
✓
Ephemeral storage size for /tmp
Lambda functions have a default /tmp storage of 512 MB, which is insufficient for large image processing tasks. Adjusting the ephemeral storage size (up to 10,240 MB) provides the necessary scratch space for temporary files, such as intermediate image buffers or resized outputs, without requiring external storage like EFS.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Reserved concurrency
Why it's wrong here
Reserved concurrency allocates a dedicated maximum number of concurrent executions for a Lambda function, preventing it from competing with other functions for available concurrency in the account. While important for performance and stability, this setting directly controls execution scaling, not the amount of local temporary disk space available to the function during invocation. Therefore, it does not address the need for larger scratch space.
- ✓
Ephemeral storage size for /tmp
Why this is correct
The ephemeral storage size for the "/tmp" directory directly controls the amount of local, temporary disk space available to a Lambda function during its execution. By increasing this configurable setting, a function can access more scratch space than the default 512 MB, which is essential for processing larger files or datasets locally. This directly fulfills the requirement for a larger temporary scratch space within the Lambda execution environment.
- ✗
Function URL auth type
Why it's wrong here
The Function URL authentication type determines how clients can invoke a Lambda function via its dedicated HTTP endpoint, offering options like AWS_IAM for authenticated access or NONE for public access. This setting is solely concerned with securing and controlling access to the function's invocation endpoint, not with the internal resources like temporary storage available to the function during execution. Consequently, it has no impact on the amount of scratch space a Lambda function can utilize.
- ✗
Dead-letter queue target
Why it's wrong here
A Dead-letter queue (DLQ) target is configured for asynchronous Lambda invocations to capture and store events that fail processing after all retry attempts. Its purpose is to prevent data loss by routing unprocessable messages to an SQS queue or SNS topic for later inspection and reprocessing. This mechanism is entirely focused on error handling and message durability, providing no capability to increase the local temporary storage available to a Lambda function.
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
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.