Question 1mediummultiple choice
Full question →mediummultiple choiceObjective-mapped
A developer notices that an AWS Lambda function processing S3 events is being retried frequently due to throttling errors from Amazon DynamoDB. The function writes records to a DynamoDB table and has reserved concurrency set to 100. The DynamoDB table uses on-demand capacity mode. What should the developer do to reduce retries and improve overall throughput?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
A
Distractor review
Increase the Lambda function's reserved concurrency to 500.
Increasing concurrency may make the problem worse by sending more concurrent requests to DynamoDB, leading to more throttling.
B
Best answer
Implement exponential backoff and retry in the Lambda function code for DynamoDB API calls.
Exponential backoff and retry automatically handle throttling errors by retrying with increasing delays, reducing the chance of repeated failures.
C
Distractor review
Disable the Lambda function's S3 event source mapping and use Amazon SQS to buffer events.
While SQS can help decouple and retry, it adds complexity and latency; the immediate issue of DynamoDB throttling is better addressed with retry logic within the function.
D
Distractor review
Switch the DynamoDB table to provisioned capacity with a high write capacity unit setting.
Provisioned capacity requires manual scaling and may lead to over-provisioning or under-provisioning; on-demand is already suitable for variable workloads.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
- Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
- Underline the problem statement mentally.
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Related practice questions
Related DVA-C02 practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A developer is building a REST API using Amazon API Gateway that will serve static content from an Amazon S3 bucket. The API should cache responses for frequently accessed objects to reduce latency. Which API Gateway feature should the developer enable?
Question 2
A developer is running a web application on multiple Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer (ALB). The application needs to store user session state that must be available across all instances. The session data is small and temporary but must survive individual instance failures. Which AWS service should the developer use to store this session state?
Question 3
A developer has an AWS Lambda function that processes messages from an Amazon SQS standard queue. The function is idempotent and currently has a batch size of 10. The developer wants to increase throughput and increases the batch size to 100. After the change, CloudWatch metrics show a significant increase in throttles and the queue backlog is growing. The function's reserved concurrency is set to 10. What is the most effective action to resolve the throttling and improve throughput?
Question 4
A developer is managing an application running on Amazon EC2 instances behind an Application Load Balancer. Users report that the application becomes unresponsive after several hours, and restarting the instance temporarily fixes the issue. The developer suspects a memory leak but cannot add custom instrumentation. Which AWS service can collect memory utilization metrics and help identify the memory leak with minimal configuration?
Question 5
A developer is building a serverless web application using AWS Lambda and Amazon DynamoDB. The application needs to perform complex aggregations on data stored in DynamoDB. Which AWS service should the developer use to perform these aggregations efficiently without reading all the data into Lambda?
Question 6
A developer has an Amazon S3 bucket containing private user documents. The application must generate a time-limited URL for users to download their own documents without requiring the users to have AWS credentials. Which solution should the developer use?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this DVA-C02 question test?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Implement exponential backoff and retry in the Lambda function code for DynamoDB API calls. — On-demand DynamoDB can still throttle if traffic is extremely bursty, but it generally scales. However, the Lambda function should implement exponential backoff and retry for DynamoDB calls to handle transient throttling gracefully. Increasing Lambda concurrency won't help if the bottleneck is DynamoDB. Using SQS can decouple but adds complexity and latency. The most direct and effective solution is to implement retries with backoff in the function code.
What should I do if I get this DVA-C02 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
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