A web application uses an Amazon Aurora DB cluster for a read-heavy workload. The team wants to increase read throughput without changing the database schema or rewriting application data access patterns. Which two changes should they make? Select two.

Point all queries to the writer endpoint so Aurora can balance reads and writes internally.

The writer endpoint is intended for writes and for transactional work that must go to the primary instance. Sending all reads there concentrates load on the primary and reduces the benefit of replicas.

Enable Multi-AZ standby for the cluster to increase the number of read-only connections.

Aurora Multi-AZ is about availability and failover, not extra read scaling. A standby or passive component does not provide the same read capacity as adding active replicas.

Move the database to a single larger instance class instead of adding replicas.

A larger instance may improve the performance of one node, but it does not provide the horizontal scaling needed for a read-heavy workload. The question asks for more read throughput without changing the application design, which is exactly what replicas and the reader endpoint provide.

What does this SAA-C03 question test?

Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Add Aurora Replicas to scale out read traffic across multiple database instances. — Aurora increases read throughput by adding Aurora Replicas and routing read-only traffic to the reader endpoint. The replicas provide additional compute capacity for queries, while the reader endpoint distributes connections across available replicas without requiring application code to know each instance address. That combination scales reads cleanly while preserving the existing schema and access patterns. Sending all traffic to the writer endpoint overloads the primary instance and defeats Aurora read scaling. Multi-AZ standby focuses on availability and recovery, not read capacity. A bigger single instance can help one node, but it is not a horizontal scaling strategy for a read-heavy cluster.

What should I do if I get this SAA-C03 question wrong?

Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.