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Reliability and Business Continuity →mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

SOA-C02 Reliability and Business Continuity Practice Question

This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of reliability and business continuity. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.

A team of developers is deploying a new microservice that uses Amazon DynamoDB as its data store. The SysOps administrator must ensure that the application can handle a sudden spike in read traffic without throttling. Which DynamoDB feature can be used to automatically handle increases in read capacity?

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

✓

DynamoDB Auto Scaling

DynamoDB Auto Scaling is the correct feature because it automatically adjusts the provisioned read and write capacity based on actual traffic patterns, preventing throttling during sudden spikes. The SysOps administrator can define a target utilization percentage (e.g., 70%), and DynamoDB Auto Scaling uses the Application Auto Scaling service to increase capacity before requests are throttled, ensuring consistent performance without manual intervention.

Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

  • ✗

    DynamoDB Global Tables

    Why it's wrong here

    Global tables provide multi-region replication.

  • ✗

    DynamoDB Time to Live (TTL)

    Why it's wrong here

    TTL is for automatic item deletion.

  • ✓

    DynamoDB Auto Scaling

    Why this is correct

    Auto scaling adjusts capacity automatically.

    Related concept

    Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

  • ✗

    DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX)

    Why it's wrong here

    DAX improves read performance but does not scale capacity.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

The trap here is that candidates often confuse DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) with a scaling solution, thinking its caching automatically handles capacity increases, but DAX only reduces read load and does not modify provisioned capacity or prevent throttling from a sudden spike in uncached reads.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

DynamoDB Auto Scaling works by monitoring the consumed read/write capacity units via Amazon CloudWatch metrics (e.g., ConsumedReadCapacityUnits) and adjusting the provisioned capacity using a target tracking scaling policy. It scales up capacity proactively when utilization exceeds the target, but it can take several minutes to complete a scaling operation, so for extremely sudden spikes, DynamoDB Adaptive Capacity (which uses internal partitions) also helps by distributing traffic more evenly across partitions. In practice, combining Auto Scaling with a small buffer of reserved capacity and using exponential backoff in the application is recommended for unpredictable workloads.

KKey Concepts to Remember

  • Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
  • Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
  • Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.

TExam Day Tips

  • Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
  • Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.

Key takeaway

Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.

Real-world example

How this comes up in practice

A cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.

What to study next

Got this wrong? Here's your next step.

Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.

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FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this SOA-C02 question test?

Reliability and Business Continuity — This question tests Reliability and Business Continuity — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..

What is the correct answer to this question?

The correct answer is: DynamoDB Auto Scaling — DynamoDB Auto Scaling is the correct feature because it automatically adjusts the provisioned read and write capacity based on actual traffic patterns, preventing throttling during sudden spikes. The SysOps administrator can define a target utilization percentage (e.g., 70%), and DynamoDB Auto Scaling uses the Application Auto Scaling service to increase capacity before requests are throttled, ensuring consistent performance without manual intervention.

What should I do if I get this SOA-C02 question wrong?

Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.

What is the key concept behind this question?

Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.

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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026

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This SOA-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 SOA-C02 exam.