PAS-C01 Technology Practice Question
A company is migrating a legacy three-tier web application to AWS. The application uses a MySQL database and stores session data in the database. The company wants to minimize database load and improve scalability. Which TWO actions should the company take to achieve these goals?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse high-availability features (Multi-AZ) or read-scaling (read replicas) with load reduction, failing to recognize that session data is write-heavy and requires a dedicated in-memory store like ElastiCache to truly minimize database load.
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 Amazon ElastiCache to store session data instead of the database.
Storing session data in the database creates unnecessary write load and latency. Amazon ElastiCache (Memcached or Redis) provides an in-memory key-value store that is ideal for transient session data, reducing database load and improving application scalability by offloading session management from the persistent MySQL layer.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Configure Amazon RDS Multi-AZ for high availability.
Why it's wrong here
Multi-AZ provides high availability but does not reduce database load.
- ✗
Use Auto Scaling for the web server tier to handle variable traffic.
Why it's wrong here
Auto Scaling improves scalability but does not directly reduce database load.
- ✓
Use Amazon ElastiCache to store session data instead of the database.
Why this is correct
Storing session data in ElastiCache reduces database write load and improves performance.
- ✗
Use Amazon RDS read replicas to offload read traffic from the primary database.
Why it's wrong here
Read replicas offload read traffic but are not the most effective for reducing session-related load.
- ✓
Use Amazon ElastiCache to cache frequently accessed database queries.
Why this is correct
Caching database queries reduces read load on the database and improves response times.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PAS-C01 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 PAS-C01 exam.