SAA-C03 Design High-Performing Architectures Practice Question
A media archive requires consistent high IOPS for a transactional database on EC2. Which EBS volume type is most suitable?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse throughput-optimized HDD (st1) with IOPS-focused workloads, mistakenly thinking high throughput equals high IOPS, but IOPS measures random access operations while throughput measures sequential data transfer, and transactional databases require low-latency random I/O.
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
✓
Provisioned IOPS SSD such as io2
The scenario requires consistent high IOPS for a transactional database, which demands low-latency, predictable performance. Provisioned IOPS SSD volumes like io2 are designed specifically for such workloads, offering up to 256,000 IOPS per volume with 99.999% durability, making them the most suitable choice for consistent high IOPS.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Provisioned IOPS SSD such as io2
Why this is correct
Provisioned IOPS SSD volumes such as io2 are engineered for latency-sensitive, transaction-heavy workloads that require consistent and predictable performance. They let you specify a guaranteed IOPS level independent of volume size, with up to 64,000 IOPS per volume when using supported instances, and offer 99.999% durability. This makes io2 ideal for a media archive that demands both high random I/O throughput and reliable, low-latency access.
- ✗
st1 Throughput Optimized HDD
Why it's wrong here
st1 is a Throughput Optimized HDD volume type focused on delivering high sequential throughput at the lowest per-GB price among HDDs, not on random I/O performance. Its throughput and IOPS scale with volume size, but even large st1 volumes provide only a few hundred baseline IOPS, far below the consistent high IOPS required here. For a workload that needs many small random reads/writes per second, st1 would be severely degraded.
- ✗
Instance store only
Why it's wrong here
Instance store volumes are physically attached to the EC2 host and can deliver extremely high IOPS with ultra-low latency, often outperforming EBS. However, instance store is ephemeral—any data written to it is lost when the instance is stopped, terminated, or suffers hardware failure, unless you implement additional replication. A media archive is durable by definition, so relying solely on instance store risks total data loss and is unsuitable for business-critical persistent storage.
- ✗
sc1 Cold HDD
Why it's wrong here
sc1 is a Cold HDD volume type optimized for cold, infrequently accessed data with the lowest storage cost. It provides extremely low baseline IOPS (around 12 per TiB) and a maximum of 250 IOPS per volume, which is orders of magnitude below what a high-IOPS workload requires. While it is cost-effective for backup archives, it cannot sustain consistent high I/O and would introduce severe latency spikes under load.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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