This exam was retired by the vendor on April 30, 2024.
DBS-C01 can no longer be scheduled. The practice material below remains available for reference and for learners studying the underlying skills. See AWS's current certification portfolio
Amazon Web Services certification practice
Practise AWS Certified Database Specialty DBS-C01 across all 5 official exam domains — Workload-Specific Database Design, Deployment and Migration, Management and Operations, Monitoring and Troubleshooting, and more — with original exam-style questions, full explanations, and wrong-answer analysis. 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.
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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Recommended: 25-question diagnostic
Covers all 5 domains · takes ~5 min · no account needed · shows your weak areas immediately
Historical facts for the AWS Certified Database Specialty DBS-C01 exam, which the vendor has retired.
Exam cost (historical)
$300 USD / ~£240
Duration (historical)
180 minutes
Question count
65 questions
Passing score
750 / 1000
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
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.
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
DBS-C01 was retired by the vendor and can no longer be scheduled or booked. See AWS's current certification portfolio for the current path.
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.
Courseiva Exam Intelligence
Data confidence: BuildingDerived from Courseiva's continuously updated practice dataset: 1,663 exam-style questions. Updated 2 July 2026.
Question difficulty mix
Average time per question: 89s
5
Exam domains
official blueprint domains covered by the bank
1,663
Questions
exam-style questions in the DBS-C01 bank
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 20-question session with a full explanation after each answer.
Mock Exam
Simulate the real exam with a timed, full-length question set.
Quick 25
A 25-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.
Exam guide
Start with a short practice session, review each missed answer, then return to the topics that caused mistakes.
AWS Certified Database Specialty DBS-C01 spans 5 official exam domains (Workload-Specific Database Design, Deployment and Migration, Management and Operations, and more). Questions test whether you can apply each objective in a realistic scenario, not just recall a definition.
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 8 of 92 tests. See all 92 DBS-C01 practice tests →
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.
Practise DBS-C01 questions in this domain →
Practise DBS-C01 questions in this domain →
Practise DBS-C01 questions in this domain →
Practise DBS-C01 questions in this domain →
Practise DBS-C01 questions in this domain →
Deep-dive questions
The most-searched DBS-C01 questions — each with a detailed explanation, worked example, and full answer breakdown.
Learn the concepts
17 book-style chapters cover every DBS-C01 objective in plain English. Read the theory here, then test it with practice questions.
Chapter 1
AWS Database Services Overview
12 min read
Chapter 2
Relational Database Design Principles on AWS
12 min read
Chapter 3
Non-Relational Database Design (DynamoDB, ElastiCache, DocumentDB)
12 min read
Chapter 4
Database High Availability and Disaster Recovery Design
12 min read
Chapter 5
Database Migration Planning and Assessment
12 min read
Chapter 6
Executing Database Migrations to AWS
12 min read
Chapter 7
Database Deployment Automation and Infrastructure as Code
12 min read
Chapter 8
Database Access Control and Authentication
12 min read
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
Original exam-style questions — not copied from any exam or dump site. Open a question for the full answer breakdown.
Refer to the exhibit. A company has an S3 bucket with server-side encryption using AWS KMS. The bucket policy allows access to a user, but the user receives 'Access Denied' when tr…
A company's Amazon RDS for Oracle instance is running out of storage space. The database administrator wants to add storage without downtime. Which action should be taken?
A company is using Amazon DynamoDB with on-demand capacity mode. The application experiences occasional throttling during traffic spikes. The database administrator wants to implem…
A company is migrating a PostgreSQL database to Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL. The source database uses custom functions written in PL/Python. What should the company consider?
Which TWO AWS services can be used together to migrate an on-premises MySQL database to Amazon Aurora MySQL with minimal downtime? (Select TWO.)
Which TWO of the following are advantages of using Amazon Aurora over standard RDS for MySQL?
Related certifications
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Ways to study DBS-C01