SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is designing a new microservices application on AWS. Each microservice needs to store and retrieve stateful data with low latency (single-digit milliseconds). The data must be durable and highly available across multiple Availability Zones. Which AWS service should be used for the primary data store for each microservice?
⚠ Common exam trap
The SAP-C02 exam often tests the distinction between a durable primary data store and a cache or object store, where candidates mistakenly choose ElastiCache for its low latency without considering durability, or S3 for its high availability without recognizing its higher latency profile.
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
✓
Amazon DynamoDB
Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed NoSQL key-value and document database that delivers single-digit millisecond latency at any scale. It is designed for high availability and durability by automatically replicating data across three Availability Zones in an AWS Region, meeting the requirements for stateful microservices data storage.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Amazon DynamoDB
Why this is correct
Amazon DynamoDB is a NoSQL database that delivers single-digit millisecond latency, is fully managed, and replicates data across multiple AZs automatically. It is ideal for stateful microservices.
- ✗
Amazon S3
Why it's wrong here
Amazon S3 provides object storage with strong durability and availability across Availability Zones, but its read/write latencies typically fall in the tens to hundreds of milliseconds, failing the single-digit millisecond requirement. It is tempting because S3 is often used for durable, highly available data storage in distributed architectures, and would be correct for static assets, backups, or data lakes where latency tolerance is higher.
- ✗
Amazon RDS with Multi-AZ
Why it's wrong here
Amazon RDS provides relational databases with Multi-AZ for high availability, but it has higher latency than DynamoDB for simple key-value operations and is not as scalable.
- ✗
Amazon ElastiCache for Redis
Why it's wrong here
Amazon ElastiCache is an in-memory cache, not a durable data store by default. While it can be made durable with persistence, it is typically used for caching, not as the primary data store.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
Go deeper
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This SAP-C02 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the SAP-C02 exam.