SAP-C02 Continuous Improvement for Existing Solutions Practice Question
A company uses AWS Lambda functions behind an Amazon API Gateway REST API. The Lambda functions query an Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL database. Recently, the company has noticed increased latency and occasional timeouts during peak hours. A solutions architect needs to improve the performance and scalability of the database layer. Which solution will meet these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?
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
✓
Implement Amazon RDS Proxy to manage connection pooling between Lambda and the RDS instance.
Amazon RDS Proxy manages connection pooling between Lambda functions and RDS, reducing the overhead of opening and closing connections, which helps avoid latency and timeouts during peak load. Option A is incorrect because DAX is a caching layer for DynamoDB, not RDS. Option B is incorrect because while Read Replicas can offload read traffic, they do not address connection management, and Lambda still creates many connections. Option C is incorrect because increasing instance size is vertical scaling and does not solve the connection pooling issue; it may still lead to timeouts under high connection surges.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable Amazon DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) on the RDS instance.
Why it's wrong here
DAX is a caching service for DynamoDB, not RDS.
- ✗
Add a Multi-AZ RDS Read Replica and modify Lambda to use the Read Replica for queries.
Why it's wrong here
Read Replicas help with read-heavy workloads but do not reduce connection overhead or timeouts from too many connections.
- ✗
Increase the instance size of the RDS database to handle more concurrent connections.
Why it's wrong here
Vertical scaling does not address the connection pooling issue; high connection counts can still cause timeouts.
- ✓
Implement Amazon RDS Proxy to manage connection pooling between Lambda and the RDS instance.
Why this is correct
RDS Proxy handles connection pooling, reducing database load and improving scalability.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
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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.