The answer is to increase the number of shards in the Kinesis Data Stream. This directly addresses Lambda throttling because each shard triggers a separate, concurrent Lambda invocation, and since the events must be processed in order per shard, adding shards increases parallelism without breaking sequence. On the AWS Certified Machine Learning Specialty MLS-C01 exam, this question tests your understanding of how Kinesis shard count governs Lambda concurrency—a common trap is to focus on DynamoDB write capacity or Lambda reserved concurrency, but the root cause here is insufficient shards limiting the number of concurrent invocations. Remember the memory tip: more shards, more concurrency; throttling from Kinesis is a shard problem, not a database or function limit problem.
MLS-C01 Data Engineering Practice Question
This MLS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of data engineering. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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 data pipeline uses Amazon Kinesis Data Streams to ingest event data. The data is consumed by an AWS Lambda function, which writes to Amazon DynamoDB. The Lambda function is experiencing throttling errors, and the DynamoDB write capacity is underutilized. The events must be processed in order per shard. Which solution most effectively addresses the throttling?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Increase the number of shards in the Kinesis Data Stream
Adding more shards to the Kinesis stream increases the number of concurrent Lambda invocations, spreading the load. Option B (increasing DynamoDB write capacity) does not address Lambda throttling. Option C (using SQS FIFO) would decouple but may cause duplicates. Option D (increasing Lambda reserved concurrency) alone may not help if Lambda is throttled due to concurrency limits; adding shards is more effective.
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 an SQS FIFO queue between Kinesis and Lambda to buffer
Why it's wrong here
Adds complexity and may not preserve strict ordering across shards.
✗
Increase the Lambda function's reserved concurrency
Why it's wrong here
Reserved concurrency helps but may not be the root cause; scaling shards is more direct.
✗
Increase the write capacity units of the DynamoDB table
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB is underutilized; the issue is Lambda throttling.
✓
Increase the number of shards in the Kinesis Data Stream
Why this is correct
More shards allow more parallel Lambda invocations, reducing throttling.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
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.
Detailed technical explanation
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.
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 MLS-C01 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
Data Engineering — This question tests Data Engineering — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Increase the number of shards in the Kinesis Data Stream — Adding more shards to the Kinesis stream increases the number of concurrent Lambda invocations, spreading the load. Option B (increasing DynamoDB write capacity) does not address Lambda throttling. Option C (using SQS FIFO) would decouple but may cause duplicates. Option D (increasing Lambda reserved concurrency) alone may not help if Lambda is throttled due to concurrency limits; adding shards is more effective.
What should I do if I get this MLS-C01 question wrong?
Identify which MLS-C01 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A data pipeline uses Amazon Kinesis Data Streams to ingest clickstream data. The data is consumed by an AWS Lambda function that transforms and writes to Amazon DynamoDB. The Lambda function is throttled during traffic spikes, causing data to be reprocessed. Which solution should the team implement to handle the throttling without losing data?
medium
A.Use Amazon SQS as an intermediate buffer between Kinesis and Lambda.
✓ B.Increase the number of shards in the Kinesis stream and configure a dead-letter queue (DLQ) for the Lambda function.
C.Enable DynamoDB auto scaling to handle writes.
D.Reduce the batch size in the Lambda event source mapping.
Why B: Option C is correct because increasing the number of shards increases the streaming capacity, and using a DLQ captures failed records for later reprocessing. Option A is wrong because DynamoDB auto scaling does not address Lambda throttling. Option B is wrong because reducing batch size may increase processing overhead. Option D is wrong because SQS is not needed as Kinesis already buffers data.
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This MLS-C01 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 MLS-C01 exam.
Question Discussion
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