SAA-C03 Design High-Performing Architectures Practice Question

A analytics dashboard uses RDS MySQL and receives many read-only reporting queries that slow down the primary database. What should the architect add? The team wants the control to be enforceable during normal operations.

⚠ Common exam trap

Test-takers frequently confuse a Multi-AZ standby (which is not readable) with a read replica (which is readable), leading candidates to incorrectly choose C thinking the standby can serve reads.

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

✓

RDS read replica and route reporting queries to it

B is correct because an RDS read replica is designed to offload read-heavy workloads from the primary database instance. By routing reporting queries to the read replica, the primary database is freed from processing these read-only requests, improving overall performance. This solution is enforceable during normal operations as the read replica is always available for reads, unlike a Multi-AZ standby which is not accessible for reads.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

✗
S3 lifecycle policy
Why it's wrong here
Lifecycle policies manage object storage cost, not RDS read load.
✓
RDS read replica and route reporting queries to it
Why this is correct
Read replicas offload read traffic from the primary instance.
✗
Multi-AZ standby and route reads to the standby
Why it's wrong here
The Multi-AZ standby is not used for normal read scaling.
✗
A larger NAT gateway
Why it's wrong here
NAT throughput does not solve database read contention.

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SAA-C03 Design High-Performing Architectures Practice Question

Why each option matters

Option-by-option breakdown

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