Question 1hardmultiple choice
Full question →hardmultiple choiceObjective-mapped
Exhibit
Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL metrics during the end-of-day report window: - CPUUtilization: 24% - ReadLatency: 118 ms - WriteLatency: 7 ms - DiskQueueDepth: 0.4 - FreeStorageSpace: stable Application notes: - Report queries are read-only and run for 20 to 30 minutes - The operational API continues to perform writes during the report window - Business accepts slightly stale report data if write performance stays unchanged
Based on the exhibit, what is the best change to improve read performance without increasing write latency on the primary database?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
A
Best answer
Create an RDS read replica and direct the reporting queries to the replica endpoint.
A read replica offloads the long-running read-only reports from the primary database, which preserves write performance and reduces read latency for the reporting workload. Because the business accepts slightly stale report data, the asynchronous replication delay is acceptable. This is the most direct and AWS-native way to separate read pressure from writes.
B
Distractor review
Convert the DB instance to Multi-AZ so the primary can serve more reads.
Multi-AZ improves availability and failover behavior, but it does not add read scaling capacity for reporting traffic.
C
Distractor review
Increase the primary instance class to a larger size and keep all traffic on one writer.
A larger instance might help temporarily, but it keeps read and write workloads competing on the same primary database.
D
Distractor review
Migrate the reporting workload to DynamoDB to gain faster reads.
That would require a data model redesign and service migration, which is unnecessary for the stated problem and not the simplest performance fix.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
- PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
- Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
- NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
- Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
- Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
- Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
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Question 2
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Question 5
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
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: Create an RDS read replica and direct the reporting queries to the replica endpoint. — The metrics show the database is not compute-bound overall, but the read workload is slow and expensive because it shares the primary with the application writes. A read replica is the natural fit for read-heavy reporting when slightly stale data is acceptable. It moves those long-running SELECT statements off the writer, reducing contention and keeping write latency stable. Multi-AZ improves failover, not read scaling, so it does not address the symptom shown in the exhibit. Why others are wrong: Multi-AZ is about resilience and standby failover, not serving more read traffic. Upsizing the primary may hide the problem briefly, but it still forces reads and writes to compete on one writer. Migrating to DynamoDB would be a major redesign and is not a targeted performance optimization for an existing PostgreSQL workload.
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.
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