DVA-C02 Development with AWS Services Practice Question
A Lambda function receives events from EventBridge. The developer wants failed invocations to be retried and then stored for later analysis if retries are exhausted. Which configuration should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse the Lambda function's own DLQ configuration (which applies to synchronous and asynchronous invocations) with EventBridge's rule-level retry policy and DLQ, but EventBridge manages retries and DLQ delivery independently of the Lambda service's built-in retry mechanism.
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
✓
Configure EventBridge retry policy and a dead-letter queue
EventBridge supports a configurable retry policy (with a maximum event age up to 24 hours and up to 185 retries by default) and can route events that exceed the retry limit to an Amazon SQS dead-letter queue (DLQ). This ensures failed invocations are retried automatically and, if all retries are exhausted, the event is stored durably in the DLQ for later analysis or reprocessing.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable API Gateway access logging
Why it's wrong here
Enabling API Gateway access logging is irrelevant in this scenario because the Lambda function receives events directly from EventBridge, not via API Gateway. API Gateway access logs capture details about requests made to an API Gateway endpoint, which is not part of the event source or invocation path for a Lambda triggered by EventBridge. Therefore, this action would not address issues related to failed Lambda invocations or event loss from EventBridge.
- ✓
Configure EventBridge retry policy and a dead-letter queue
Why this is correct
Configuring an EventBridge retry policy ensures that events are re-attempted if the initial Lambda invocation fails, improving resilience. Pairing this with a dead-letter queue (DLQ) for the EventBridge target is crucial. If all retries are exhausted and the Lambda function still fails to process an event, EventBridge will send that event to the specified DLQ, preventing data loss and allowing for subsequent investigation and reprocessing of failed events.
- ✗
Increase reserved concurrency to zero
Why it's wrong here
Increasing reserved concurrency to zero would effectively prevent the Lambda function from being invoked by EventBridge events, as it reserves no concurrency for processing. This action would immediately throttle all incoming events, causing them to fail and potentially be lost or sent to an EventBridge DLQ if configured, but it does not improve error handling or prevent data loss in a functional manner. Instead, it intentionally stops the function from running.
- ✗
Store events in CloudFormation outputs
Why it's wrong here
Storing events in CloudFormation outputs is an inappropriate mechanism for handling real-time event data from a Lambda function. CloudFormation outputs are used to export static values, such as resource IDs or endpoints, from a deployed stack for use by other stacks or for reference. They are not designed for dynamic data storage, logging, or error handling of operational events processed by a running application.
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.