SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is designing a new application that will use Amazon DynamoDB as its database. The application will have a heavy read workload with occasional write spikes. The company wants to minimize costs while ensuring that reads are eventually consistent and writes are not throttled. Which three options should the architect consider? (Choose THREE.)
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse DynamoDB Streams with a caching solution, or incorrectly assume strongly consistent reads are always required, ignoring the cost implications of RCU consumption for read-heavy workloads.
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
✓
Use Auto Scaling for write capacity
DynamoDB Auto Scaling adjusts the provisioned write capacity based on actual traffic, preventing throttling during write spikes while reducing capacity and cost during low-traffic periods. This meets the requirement to minimize costs and avoid write throttling without manual intervention.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use DynamoDB Streams to asynchronously replicate data to a second table for reads
Why it's wrong here
Streams are for change data capture, not a read optimization.
- ✓
Use Auto Scaling for write capacity
Why this is correct
Auto Scaling adjusts write capacity to handle spikes without throttling.
- ✓
Use eventually consistent reads for most queries
Why this is correct
Eventually consistent reads consume half the read capacity of strongly consistent reads.
- ✓
Use DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) to cache read results
Why this is correct
DAX reduces read load on DynamoDB, lowering read capacity costs.
- ✗
Use strongly consistent reads for all queries
Why it's wrong here
Strongly consistent reads consume more read capacity and cost more.
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