A web application uses an Amazon Aurora DB cluster. The workload is becoming read-heavy, and the application team wants to increase read throughput without changing the database schema. They can adjust the application to route reads differently. What should they do?

Switch the cluster to Multi-AZ with a longer failover target clock

Multi-AZ primarily improves availability and failover behavior. Adjusting failover-related settings does not provide a direct mechanism to scale read throughput like read replicas do.

Move all reads to the writer endpoint to reduce connection overhead

Concentrating reads on the writer endpoint typically increases load on the primary instance. In a read-heavy workload, this usually reduces throughput and increases latency rather than improving it.

Disable automated backups to reduce storage overhead and speed reads

Automated backups affect operational recovery/retention, not read scaling capacity. Disabling them does not address the root cause of limited read throughput for a read-heavy workload.

What does this SAA-C03 question test?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: Add Aurora read replicas and route read queries to the cluster reader endpoint — A. For a read-heavy Aurora workload, adding read replicas and routing read queries to the Aurora cluster reader endpoint is the most direct way to increase read throughput without schema changes. Read replicas provide additional compute capacity for handling SELECT queries. Since the team can change application routing, they can send reads to the reader endpoint so that replicas can share the read load. Options that focus on failover/availability (B), concentrating reads on the writer (C), or backups (D) do not scale read capacity in the same way. B is wrong because Multi-AZ is about resilience and failover, not increasing read throughput. C is wrong because the writer endpoint is already responsible for writes and master duties; moving reads there concentrates workload and generally worsens performance under heavy reads. D is wrong because backups relate to recovery requirements; they do not provide an architectural scaling mechanism for read throughput.

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.