The answer is gp2 I/O credit exhaustion, as the db.m5.large instance with 300 GB of General Purpose SSD (gp2) provides a baseline of only 900 IOPS, and consistently high ReadIOPS will rapidly deplete the 5.4 million I/O credit burst balance, causing performance throttling when credits run out. This occurs because gp2 volumes rely on a burst bucket for throughput above the baseline, and a read-heavy workload with low WriteIOPS is a classic sign that the volume is exhausting its credits rather than experiencing a storage or instance bottleneck. On the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator Associate SOA-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of gp2’s credit model versus gp3’s baseline performance, and a common trap is to mistakenly suspect the instance type or network limits when the real culprit is storage throttling. Remember the memory tip: “Reads drain the bucket, writes barely touch it”—if ReadIOPS is high and WriteIOPS is low on gp2, always check the burst balance first.
SOA-C02 Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation Practice Question
This SOA-C02 practice question tests your understanding of monitoring, logging, and remediation. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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 SysOps administrator is troubleshooting a slow-running RDS MySQL instance. The administrator notices that the ReadIOPS metric is consistently high, but the WriteIOPS is low. The instance type is db.m5.large with 300 GB of General Purpose SSD (gp2). What is the most likely cause?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "most likely"
Why it matters: Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The gp2 volume is experiencing I/O credit exhaustion.
The correct answer is D because a db.m5.large instance with 300 GB of gp2 storage has a baseline IOPS of 900 (3 IOPS per GB) and a burst balance of 5.4 million I/O credits. With consistently high ReadIOPS and low WriteIOPS, the volume is likely exhausting its I/O credit balance, causing performance throttling. This is a classic symptom of gp2 I/O credit exhaustion, where read-heavy workloads deplete the burst bucket, leading to degraded performance.
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.
✗
The instance type is too small for the workload.
Why it's wrong here
The instance type affects CPU and memory, not IOPS directly.
✗
The database is experiencing write contention.
Why it's wrong here
WriteIOPS is low, so write contention is unlikely.
✗
The network bandwidth is insufficient.
Why it's wrong here
Network bandwidth is not the issue for storage IOPS.
✓
The gp2 volume is experiencing I/O credit exhaustion.
The clue word "most likely" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often assume a slow database is always due to an undersized instance type, overlooking that gp2 volumes have a burst credit mechanism that can be exhausted by sustained high read I/O even with low write activity.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
General Purpose SSD (gp2) volumes use a credit-based burst model where each GB provides 3 baseline IOPS, and unused I/O credits accumulate up to a maximum of 5.4 million credits. When the volume's I/O demand exceeds the baseline (900 IOPS for 300 GB), it draws from the credit bucket; once exhausted, IOPS are throttled to the baseline rate. In this scenario, high ReadIOPS indicates the workload is consuming credits faster than they are replenished, leading to performance degradation despite low write activity.
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 media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
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.
Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation — This question tests Monitoring, Logging, and Remediation — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: The gp2 volume is experiencing I/O credit exhaustion. — The correct answer is D because a db.m5.large instance with 300 GB of gp2 storage has a baseline IOPS of 900 (3 IOPS per GB) and a burst balance of 5.4 million I/O credits. With consistently high ReadIOPS and low WriteIOPS, the volume is likely exhausting its I/O credit balance, causing performance throttling. This is a classic symptom of gp2 I/O credit exhaustion, where read-heavy workloads deplete the burst bucket, leading to degraded performance.
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.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "most likely". Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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