Amazon Web Services certification practice
Practise AWS Certified Database Specialty DBS-C01 practice test — original exam-style scenarios covering every exam domain, with detailed explanations, wrong-answer analysis, and common exam traps. AWS certification exams usually test architecture trade-offs: service selection, resilience, cost, security, networking and operations. Courseiva helps you practise those decisions through original scenario-based questions.
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Key facts for the AWS Certified Database Specialty DBS-C01 exam.
Exam cost
$300 USD / ~£240
Duration
180 minutes
Question count
65 questions
Passing score
750 / 1000
Validity
3 years
Delivered by
Pearson VUE
Online proctored
Yes — available
Retake policy
100% free — no account required
Everything on Courseiva for DBS-C01 is free — no subscription, no trial, no email wall.
Courseiva provides free AWS Certified Database Specialty DBS-C01 (DBS-C01) practice questions with original exam-style questions, detailed explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics. Courseiva is an independent platform and is not affiliated with Amazon Web Services.
14 days between attempts; third attempt requires 90-day wait
Question formats
The AWS Certified Database – Specialty (DBS-C01) validates deep expertise across the full breadth of AWS database services, including Amazon RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, ElastiCache, Redshift, and Neptune. The exam tests the ability to recommend the right database service for a workload, design highly available and fault-tolerant database architectures, perform migrations using AWS DMS, and implement security and monitoring best practices. It is aimed at database administrators and architects who routinely work with AWS database technologies.
Official prerequisite
None formal; AWS recommends 5+ years of database technology experience and 2+ years working with AWS databases.
Recommended experience
Hands-on experience with RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, and DMS; solid understanding of SQL, NoSQL, and database migration strategies.
5+ years of general database experience; 2+ years with AWS database services.
Should you skip this exam?
Those new to AWS databases — earn AWS Solutions Architect Associate first.
Courseiva study tip
Master Aurora vs RDS trade-offs, DynamoDB partition key design, ElastiCache caching strategies, and AWS DMS migration edge cases.
UK salary range
£65,000–£95,000
US salary range
$130,000–$175,000
Job roles that cite DBS-C01
What certification to take next
The exam costs $300 USD (approximately £240 GBP). It is a Specialty-level exam, which carries a higher fee than Associate-level exams.
You need a scaled score of 750 out of 1000 to pass DBS-C01.
The exam has 65 questions (multiple choice and multiple response) with 180 minutes allocated.
It is rated moderate-hard. Candidates must know the nuances of every major AWS database service, including when to use DynamoDB versus Aurora versus ElastiCache, and how to handle complex migration scenarios.
It covers workload-specific database design, high availability and disaster recovery architectures, migration using AWS DMS and SCT, database security (encryption, IAM, VPC), monitoring with CloudWatch and Performance Insights, and database automation.
The certification is valid for 3 years and can be renewed by passing the same or a higher-level AWS exam before it expires.
It targets experienced database administrators and architects who design, deploy, and manage AWS database workloads in production environments.
See how DBS-C01 stacks up against related certifications.
Practice modes
Choose a mode that matches your current study phase. Use topic practice early on and mock exams closer to your exam date.
All DBS-C01 Questions
Browse the full question bank organised by domain and difficulty.
Practice Test
Start a session with detailed answer explanations after each question.
Mock Exam
Simulate the real exam with a timed, full-length question set.
Quick 10
A 10-question warm-up — ideal for a short daily study session.
Flashcards
Reinforce key terms, commands, and protocol facts with flashcards.
Domain Practice
Focus exclusively on one exam domain to target your weakest area.
50-Question Set
Mid-length practice set covering all domains.
Full-length Simulation
Full exam simulation matching the real question count.
Exam guide
Start with a short practice session, review each missed answer, then return to the topics that caused mistakes.
Cloud concepts questions usually test the service model (IaaS/PaaS/SaaS) and deployment model (public/private/hybrid/community) appropriate for a given scenario.
IaaS, PaaS and SaaS responsibilities and examples.
Public, private, hybrid and community cloud deployment models.
On-premises vs cloud trade-offs: cost, control, scalability.
How cloud connectivity options (VPN, Direct Connect, ExpressRoute) work.
Related practice questions
Use these internal links to move from the exam guide into focused topic practice pages.
Practise DBS-C01 questions linked to Workload-Specific Database Design.
Practise DBS-C01 questions linked to Deployment and Migration.
Practise DBS-C01 questions linked to Management and Operations.
Practise DBS-C01 questions linked to Monitoring and Troubleshooting.
Practise DBS-C01 questions linked to Database Security.
Practise DBS-C01 questions linked to DBS-C01 fundamentals.
Practise DBS-C01 questions linked to DBS-C01 scenario.
Practise DBS-C01 questions linked to DBS-C01 troubleshooting.
Practice directory
Every practice set is a unique selection of questions — numbered tests, domain-focused sessions, and topic-specific quizzes.
Showing 30 of 95 tests. See all 95 DBS-C01 practice tests →
Timed mode
Official blueprint
Target weak areas by practising questions from a single domain. Each domain page shows all questions, difficulty breakdown, and a focused practice session.
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Free study guide
The Courseiva DBS-C01 study guide covers exam format, the official domain blueprint with weights, a structured study plan, and domain-specific tips for each section. Use it alongside practice questions to build both conceptual depth and exam confidence.
Sample questions
Select your answer before revealing the explanation. These questions are original exam-style — not copied from any exam or dump site.
Drag a concept onto its matching description — or click a concept then click the description.
Relational database service with managed instances
NoSQL key-value and document database
In-memory caching service supporting Redis and Memcached
Petabyte-scale data warehouse
MongoDB-compatible document database
Trap 1: Use AWS DataSync to transfer the MongoDB data files.
AWS DataSync is for file-based data, not for live database migration.
Trap 2: Set up a MongoDB replica set on Amazon EC2 and promote it to…
This adds complexity and does not directly migrate to DocumentDB; it's an intermediate step.
Trap 3: Use mongodump to export the data and mongorestore to import into…
Mongodump can impact source performance and may require downtime if consistency is needed.
Use AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS) with ongoing replication from the MongoDB source.
AWS DMS supports MongoDB as a source and can perform continuous replication with minimal impact.
Use AWS DataSync to transfer the MongoDB data files.
Why wrong: AWS DataSync is for file-based data, not for live database migration.
Set up a MongoDB replica set on Amazon EC2 and promote it to primary, then migrate to DocumentDB.
Why wrong: This adds complexity and does not directly migrate to DocumentDB; it's an intermediate step.
Use mongodump to export the data and mongorestore to import into DocumentDB.
Why wrong: Mongodump can impact source performance and may require downtime if consistency is needed.
Trap 1: Use Amazon DynamoDB with device_id as partition key and store all…
The list would grow too large and exceed the 400 KB item limit.
Trap 2: Use Amazon S3 to store compressed JSON files per device per hour,…
This is not suitable for real-time queries and high write frequency.
Trap 3: Use Amazon RDS for MySQL with a single table and index on device_id…
A single RDS instance cannot scale to high write throughput from thousands of devices.
Use Amazon DynamoDB with device_id as partition key and store all readings for a device as a list attribute in a single item, updating the list every minute.
Why wrong: The list would grow too large and exceed the 400 KB item limit.
Use Amazon S3 to store compressed JSON files per device per hour, and query using Amazon Athena.
Why wrong: This is not suitable for real-time queries and high write frequency.
Use Amazon DynamoDB with device_id as partition key and timestamp as sort key.
DynamoDB can handle high write throughput and efficient queries by device and time range.
Use Amazon RDS for MySQL with a single table and index on device_id and timestamp.
Why wrong: A single RDS instance cannot scale to high write throughput from thousands of devices.
Use Amazon Timestream, a time series database, with device_id as dimension and timestamp as time column.
Timestream is purpose-built for time series data and handles high write throughput.
Drag steps to the numbered slots on the right, or tap a step then tap a slot.
Drag steps to the numbered slots on the right, or tap a step then tap a slot.
Drag steps to the numbered slots on the right, or tap a step then tap a slot.
Official booking and top-rated study resources for the DBS-C01.
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