SAA-C03 Practice Question: RDS Proxy pools and reuses database connections.
A mobile game backend uses Amazon Aurora. The workload has many short-lived database connections from Lambda functions, causing connection storms. What should be added? The design must avoid adding custom operational scripts.
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates might think adding more network resources (like an internet gateway or larger DNS zone) solves connection storms, when the real issue is connection management at the database layer, not network capacity.
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 Proxy
RDS Proxy is the correct choice because it pools and shares database connections, reducing the overhead of establishing new connections for each Lambda invocation. This prevents connection storms by maintaining a persistent pool of connections to Aurora, which is ideal for short-lived, high-frequency connections from serverless functions like Lambda.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
An internet gateway
Why it's wrong here
An internet gateway does not manage database connections.
- ✗
S3 Select
Why it's wrong here
S3 Select queries object content and is unrelated to database connection pooling.
- ✓
RDS Proxy
Why this is correct
RDS Proxy pools and manages database connections, improving scalability for serverless and bursty workloads.
- ✗
A larger Route 53 hosted zone
Why it's wrong here
DNS hosted zones do not solve connection storms.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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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.