Quick Answer

The answer is to configure the application to use the read replica endpoint for reads and the primary endpoint for writes, while also creating additional read replicas across different Availability Zones and deploying RDS Proxy for connection pooling. This trio of strategies works because distributing read traffic across isolated replicas offloads the primary instance, preserving its capacity for writes, while RDS Proxy prevents resource exhaustion by managing database connections efficiently under sudden spikes. On the SAA-C03 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of how to decouple read and write paths for resilience—a common trap is assuming Multi-AZ alone handles read scaling, but it only provides failover, not read offloading. The key insight is that read replicas improve read scalability, while RDS Proxy ensures connection resilience under heavy load. Memory tip: think “Reads Replicate, Proxy Protects, Primary Preserves Writes.”