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DVA-C02 Development with AWS Services Practice Question

This DVA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of development with aws services. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.

A developer is creating a new DynamoDB table to store order data. The orders have a unique order ID and are retrieved by order ID. Occasionally, the developer needs to query orders by customer ID. Which design approach would minimize costs and provide the fastest queries?

Clue words in this question

Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.

Clue: "minimum / minimize"
Why it matters: Asks for the least resource use — fewest addresses, smallest subnet, lowest overhead. Eliminate over-provisioned options even if they would technically work.

Question 1easymultiple choice

Full question →

A
Use the order ID as the partition key and create a global secondary index on customer ID
This provides fast queries by order ID (primary) and by customer ID via GSI, minimizing cost and performance impact.
B
Use the customer ID as the partition key and order ID as the sort key
Why wrong: This would require knowing the customer ID to retrieve orders by order ID, making those queries inefficient.
C
Use the order ID as the partition key and scan the table for customer ID queries
Why wrong: Scanning is expensive and slow, not suitable even for occasional queries.
D
Use the customer ID as the partition key and create a local secondary index on order ID
Why wrong: LSI still requires the same partition key (customer ID) to query, so order ID queries would require a scan.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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 order ID as the partition key and create a global secondary index on customer ID

Option A is correct because using the order ID as the partition key ensures the most efficient primary key access for the primary query pattern (retrieving by order ID). Creating a Global Secondary Index (GSI) on customer ID allows efficient querying by customer ID without scanning the base table, and GSIs have separate read/write capacity from the base table, so you only pay for the index when it is used. This design minimizes costs by avoiding unnecessary scans and provides the fastest queries for both access patterns.

Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.

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 order ID as the partition key and create a global secondary index on customer ID
Why this is correct
This provides fast queries by order ID (primary) and by customer ID via GSI, minimizing cost and performance impact.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "minimum / minimize" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use the customer ID as the partition key and order ID as the sort key
Why it's wrong here
This would require knowing the customer ID to retrieve orders by order ID, making those queries inefficient.
✗
Use the order ID as the partition key and scan the table for customer ID queries
Why it's wrong here
Scanning is expensive and slow, not suitable even for occasional queries.
✗
Use the customer ID as the partition key and create a local secondary index on order ID
Why it's wrong here
LSI still requires the same partition key (customer ID) to query, so order ID queries would require a scan.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

The trap here is that candidates often choose Option B (customer ID as partition key) thinking it naturally supports both access patterns, but they overlook the hot partition problem and the fact that retrieving a single order by order ID would require a scan or a query with a known customer ID, which is not always available.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

Under the hood, DynamoDB distributes items across partitions based on the partition key's hash value. A GSI has its own partition key and sort key, and its throughput is provisioned independently from the base table, allowing you to optimize costs by setting lower read capacity on the GSI if queries by customer ID are infrequent. In contrast, an LSI must use the same partition key as the base table, so it cannot alleviate hot partition issues, and it consumes the base table's read capacity, making it less cost-effective for infrequent access patterns.

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.

TExam Day Tips

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.

Key takeaway

Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.

Real-world example

How this comes up in practice

A startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.

What to study next

Got this wrong? Here's your next step.

Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.

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FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this DVA-C02 question test?

Development with AWS Services — This question tests Development with AWS Services — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Use the order ID as the partition key and create a global secondary index on customer ID — Option A is correct because using the order ID as the partition key ensures the most efficient primary key access for the primary query pattern (retrieving by order ID). Creating a Global Secondary Index (GSI) on customer ID allows efficient querying by customer ID without scanning the base table, and GSIs have separate read/write capacity from the base table, so you only pay for the index when it is used. This design minimizes costs by avoiding unnecessary scans and provides the fastest queries for both access patterns.

What should I do if I get this DVA-C02 question wrong?

Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.

Are there clue words in this question I should notice?

Yes — watch for: "minimum / minimize". Asks for the least resource use — fewest addresses, smallest subnet, lowest overhead. Eliminate over-provisioned options even if they would technically work.

What is the key concept behind this question?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

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