SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is designing a new application that will use Amazon DynamoDB as its primary database. The application has two access patterns: one requires strongly consistent reads, and the other requires eventually consistent reads. The company wants to minimize costs while meeting the read consistency requirements. How should the company configure DynamoDB reads?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates assume DAX can provide strong consistency (it cannot) or that global tables are a solution for local consistency requirements, when in fact the correct approach is to use the native DynamoDB `ConsistentRead` parameter selectively based on the access pattern.
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 strongly consistent reads for the pattern that requires it, and eventually consistent reads for the other pattern.
DynamoDB supports both strongly consistent reads and eventually consistent reads at the API level (via the `ConsistentRead` parameter). Strongly consistent reads return the most up-to-date data but consume twice the read capacity units (RCUs) compared to eventually consistent reads. By using strongly consistent reads only for the access pattern that requires it, and eventually consistent reads for the other pattern, the company minimizes RCU consumption and thus costs while meeting the specific consistency requirements of each pattern.
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 strongly consistent reads for all read requests to ensure data accuracy.
Why it's wrong here
More expensive than necessary.
- ✗
Use DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) to cache reads and achieve strong consistency.
Why it's wrong here
DAX provides eventually consistent caching, not strong consistency.
- ✗
Use DynamoDB global tables with strongly consistent reads enabled.
Why it's wrong here
Overkill and costly.
- ✓
Use strongly consistent reads for the pattern that requires it, and eventually consistent reads for the other pattern.
Why this is correct
Optimizes cost by using the cheaper eventually consistent reads when acceptable.
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