SAA-C03 Design Resilient Architectures Practice Question
A healthcare company stores patient records in an Amazon DynamoDB table. The table must be recoverable to any point within the last 35 days, and the data must remain available if an entire AWS Region becomes unavailable. Which two actions should a solutions architect take to meet these requirements? (Choose two.)
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is treating DynamoDB Streams or on-demand backups as substitutes for point-in-time recovery, when only PITR provides second-level restore within a 35-day window.
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
✓
Enable point-in-time recovery on the DynamoDB table.
Point-in-time recovery provides continuous backups that allow restoration to any second within the last 35 days, meeting the recovery requirement. DynamoDB global tables replicate the table across multiple AWS Regions and support automatic failover, meeting the Region-level availability requirement. Together, these two features address both dimensions of the scenario.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Enable point-in-time recovery on the DynamoDB table.
Why this is correct
Point-in-time recovery continuously backs up the DynamoDB table and allows restoration to any second within the last 35 days, up to the configured retention period. This directly satisfies the requirement to recover patient records to any point within 35 days. It protects against accidental writes or deletes but does not provide cross-Region availability, so it must be combined with another action.
- ✗
Enable DynamoDB Streams and archive the stream to an Amazon S3 bucket.
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB Streams captures item-level changes and can be archived to Amazon S3 for analysis or replay, but it does not provide point-in-time restoration to an arbitrary second within 35 days. Reconstructing the table from stream records is complex and not guaranteed to match the original state. This does not satisfy the recovery requirement as directly as point-in-time recovery.
- ✗
Configure on-demand backup and restore with a daily backup schedule.
Why it's wrong here
On-demand backups create full snapshots at specific times, so recovery is limited to the backup timestamps rather than any point within 35 days. Daily backups also leave up to 24 hours of data at risk, which does not meet the stated recovery point objective. This option does not provide the granularity required by the scenario.
- ✗
Enable DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) for the table.
Why it's wrong here
DAX is an in-memory cache that reduces read latency for DynamoDB tables. It does not provide backup, point-in-time recovery, or cross-Region replication. Enabling DAX improves performance but has no effect on the durability or availability requirements described in the scenario, so it is not a valid action here.
- ✓
Create a DynamoDB global table with replica tables in additional AWS Regions.
Why this is correct
DynamoDB global tables replicate data across multiple AWS Regions and automatically handle failover to a replica if a Region becomes unavailable. This satisfies the requirement that patient records remain available during a Region-wide failure. Global tables provide multi-Region availability, while point-in-time recovery covers the recovery point objective, so both actions are needed.
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Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
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