Practice Questions & Scenarios
A company needs to migrate their MySQL database to AWS with minimal downtime and automatic failover capability. Which solution should they choose?
A) Single-AZ RDS MySQL instance
B) Multi-AZ RDS MySQL deployment
C) MySQL on EC2 with EBS snapshots
D) Aurora MySQL Serverless
Answer: B) Multi-AZ RDS MySQL deployment
Multi-AZ provides automatic failover, high availability, and minimal downtime during maintenance.
Which RDS storage type provides the highest IOPS performance for mission-critical applications?
A) General Purpose SSD (gp2)
B) General Purpose SSD (gp3)
C) Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1)
D) Magnetic storage
Answer: C) Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1)
io1 provides up to 64,000 IOPS with consistent performance for I/O intensive workloads.
A global application needs a database that can handle read traffic from multiple regions with low latency. What Aurora feature should be used?
A) Aurora Multi-Master
B) Aurora Global Database
C) Aurora Serverless
D) Aurora Read Replicas
Answer: B) Aurora Global Database
Aurora Global Database provides low-latency global reads with cross-region replication.
An application has unpredictable database workloads that vary from minimal usage to high peaks. Which Aurora option is most cost-effective?
A) Aurora Provisioned with largest instance
B) Aurora Serverless v1
C) Aurora Serverless v2
D) Aurora with Auto Scaling read replicas
Answer: C) Aurora Serverless v2
Aurora Serverless v2 automatically scales capacity and charges only for resources used.
How can you encrypt an existing unencrypted RDS database?
A) Enable encryption in RDS settings
B) Create encrypted snapshot and restore
C) Use AWS KMS to encrypt in place
D) Cannot encrypt existing database
Answer: B
Create encrypted snapshot, then restore to new encrypted instance.
Which tool provides database load analysis and top SQL statements?
A) CloudWatch Metrics
B) Enhanced Monitoring
C) Performance Insights
D) AWS X-Ray
Answer: C
Performance Insights shows database load and identifies top SQL statements.
An e-commerce platform experiences high read traffic during sales events but normal traffic otherwise. The application needs to scale read capacity automatically and maintain data consistency.
Best Solution:
A social media application serves users globally and needs low-latency database access from multiple regions with disaster recovery capabilities.
Best Solution:
Which AWS service is best for migrating Oracle to PostgreSQL with minimal downtime?
A) AWS DataSync
B) AWS DMS + SCT
C) AWS Backup
D) Native database tools
Answer: B
DMS for data migration, SCT for schema conversion in heterogeneous migrations.
What is the maximum retention period for RDS automated backups?
A) 7 days
B) 30 days
C) 35 days
D) 90 days
Answer: C
RDS automated backups can be retained for 1-35 days (default 7 days).
Pay attention to keywords like "minimal downtime", "high availability", "cost-effective"
Rule out obviously incorrect answers first, then choose the best remaining option
Factor in budget, performance, security, and compliance requirements
Understand what each service can and cannot do