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A developer is monitoring an AWS Lambda function that processes messages from an SQS queue. CloudWatch metrics show that the function's throttles are high when the queue backlog grows. The function has a reserved concurrency of 50 and a batch size of 10. The SQS queue has a visibility timeout of 30 seconds. The function processes each batch in about 5 seconds. Which action will most effectively reduce throttles?

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A developer is monitoring an AWS Lambda function that processes messages from an SQS queue. CloudWatch metrics show that the function's throttles are high when the queue backlog grows. The function has a reserved concurrency of 50 and a batch size of 10. The SQS queue has a visibility timeout of 30 seconds. The function processes each batch in about 5 seconds. Which action will most effectively reduce throttles?

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 SQS queue visibility timeout

The visibility timeout controls how long a message is invisible after being received, but it does not affect the number of concurrent Lambda invocations or throttle rate.

B

Distractor review

Increase the Lambda function's reserved concurrency

Increasing reserved concurrency raises the limit on concurrent executions, which might reduce throttles if the limit is the bottleneck. However, it does not address the volume of messages; increasing batch size is more efficient.

C

Best answer

Increase the Lambda function's batch size

Increasing the batch size reduces the number of invocations needed to process the same number of messages, thereby reducing the number of concurrent executions and decreasing throttles.

D

Distractor review

Decrease the SQS queue message retention period

Decreasing message retention period drops messages sooner, which may reduce backlog but is not a direct solution for throttles and could cause data loss.

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: Increase the Lambda function's batch size — Throttles occur when more concurrent Lambda invocations are attempted than the reserved concurrency allows. Increasing the batch size allows the function to process more messages per invocation, thus reducing the number of concurrent executions required to process the same backlog. This directly reduces the likelihood of hitting the reserved concurrency limit. Increasing reserved concurrency might help but does not reduce the number of invocations; it only raises the limit. Visibility timeout and message retention do not affect throttles. Therefore, increasing the batch size is the most effective action.

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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