SAA-C03 Practice Question: io2 is a Provisioned IOPS SSD EBS volume type.
A media archive requires consistent high IOPS for a transactional database on EC2. Which EBS volume type is most suitable? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates choose instance store (Option C) thinking it provides the highest performance, but they overlook its lack of persistence and the requirement for custom scripts to manage data durability, which violates the 'no custom operational scripts' constraint.
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
A Provisioned IOPS SSD (io2) volume is the correct choice because it delivers consistent, high IOPS required for transactional databases, with a 99.999% durability guarantee and the ability to provision IOPS independently of storage capacity. This avoids custom operational scripts by providing predictable performance natively through the EBS volume type.
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 (io2) is the correct choice because it delivers consistent, high IOPS with single-digit millisecond latency and 99.999% durability, making it ideal for business-critical transactional workloads like a media archive's metadata database. Unlike throughput-oriented HDD types, io2 lets you specify a guaranteed IOPS level, up to 64,000 IOPS per volume on standard io2 (or 256,000 with Block Express), so the storage performance remains stable even under sustained load.
- ✗
st1 Throughput Optimized HDD
Why it's wrong here
st1 Throughput Optimized HDD is a poor fit because it is engineered for large, sequential transfers—think log processing, data warehouses, or map-reduce—not for the random access patterns and high IOPS that a media archive database requires. Its performance is defined by throughput (up to 500 MB/s per volume) and a baseline of only 500 IOPS per volume, which cannot satisfy a requirement for consistent high IOPS.
- ✗
Instance store only
Why it's wrong here
Instance store only provides extremely fast, low-latency storage because it is physically attached to the EC2 host, but it is ephemeral: data is lost on instance stop, termination, or underlying hardware failure. A media archive demands durable, persistent storage that survives beyond the instance lifecycle, so using instance store alone is unsafe. Moreover, you cannot create snapshots of instance store volumes, making backup and disaster recovery problematic.
- ✗
sc1 Cold HDD
Why it's wrong here
sc1 Cold HDD is the lowest-cost EBS volume type, designed for infrequently accessed cold data such as archival backups, with maximum performance capped at 250 IOPS and 250 MB/s per volume. It optimizes cost per gigabyte rather than performance, so it cannot deliver the consistent high IOPS required by a media archive. While both st1 and sc1 are HDD-based, sc1's performance is even lower and more burst-limited, making it entirely unsuitable for transactional workloads.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every SAA-C03 question from scratch — 935 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SAA-C03 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 SAA-C03 exam.