SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
A company is designing a solution to capture changes from an Amazon RDS database and stream them to a data lake. Which AWS service should be used to capture database changes in real time?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse AWS DMS with other streaming services like Kinesis or Glue, not realizing that DMS is the only AWS service that natively captures database transaction log changes without requiring custom code or polling.
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
✓
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with change data capture (CDC)
AWS DMS with change data capture (CDC) is the correct service because it is specifically designed to capture ongoing changes from source databases (including Amazon RDS) in near real time and replicate them to targets like Amazon S3 (data lake). DMS reads the database transaction logs (e.g., MySQL binlog, PostgreSQL WAL) to capture inserts, updates, and deletes without requiring application-level polling or custom code, making it the most appropriate managed solution for streaming database changes to a data lake.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS Glue with streaming ETL
Why it's wrong here
Glue is for batch and streaming ETL, but not designed to capture changes.
- ✗
AWS Lambda with database polling
Why it's wrong here
Polling is less efficient and real-time; DMS is better.
- ✗
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams with a custom producer
Why it's wrong here
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams does not natively *capture* change data from an Amazon RDS database; it serves as a real-time data transport layer. A custom producer would need to be developed to extract changes from RDS's change data capture (CDC) mechanisms, making this option an incomplete solution for the *capture* requirement itself. It is tempting because Kinesis is a robust real-time streaming service, ideal for ingesting high-throughput event data from custom applications or IoT devices where the producer actively sends data, and it can be a component *after* changes are captured.
- ✓
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with change data capture (CDC)
Why this is correct
DMS can capture ongoing changes from RDS.
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.