AWS Certified Data Engineer – Associate (DEA-C01) — Question 42

A company stores data from an application in an Amazon DynamoDB table that operates in provisioned capacity mode. The workloads of the application have predictable throughput load on a regular schedule. Every Monday, there is an immediate increase in activity early in the morning. The application has very low usage during weekends.
The company must ensure that the application performs consistently during peak usage times.
Which solution will meet these requirements in the MOST cost-effective way?

Answer options

• A. Increase the provisioned capacity to the maximum capacity that is currently present during peak load times.
• B. Divide the table into two tables. Provision each table with half of the provisioned capacity of the original table. Spread queries evenly across both tables.
• C. Use AWS Application Auto Scaling to schedule higher provisioned capacity for peak usage times. Schedule lower capacity during off-peak times.
• D. Change the capacity mode from provisioned to on-demand. Configure the table to scale up and scale down based on the load on the table.

Correct answer: C

Explanation

The correct answer is C because AWS Application Auto Scaling allows for scheduled adjustments to provisioned capacity, which directly addresses the predictable increase in load on Mondays while saving costs during low usage periods. Option A may lead to unnecessary costs by maintaining high capacity full-time, B complicates management without guaranteeing performance, and D does not ensure consistent performance during peak times since it relies on an unpredictable on-demand model.