About This Flashcard Deck
This flashcard deck contains 10 cards covering key DynamoDB concepts for the DVA-C02 exam. Test your DynamoDB knowledge — keys, indexes, capacity, streams, and DAX. Use active recall by attempting to answer each question before revealing the answer. Research shows that flashcard-based active recall is one of the most effective study techniques for certification exams.
Question
What is the maximum item size in DynamoDB?
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Answer
400 KB per item, including attribute names and values.
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All DynamoDB Flashcards
Q: What is the maximum item size in DynamoDB?
A: 400 KB per item, including attribute names and values.
Q: GSI vs LSI: when must you create each?
A: LSI must be defined at table creation and shares the table partition key. GSI can be added anytime with a different partition key.
Q: How does DynamoDB on-demand capacity work?
A: DynamoDB instantly accommodates workloads as they ramp up or down. You pay per read/write request with no capacity planning.
Q: What are DynamoDB Streams?
A: An ordered sequence of item-level changes (INSERT, MODIFY, REMOVE). Records are available for 24 hours and can trigger Lambda functions.
Q: How do DynamoDB transactions work?
A: TransactWriteItems and TransactGetItems provide ACID transactions across up to 100 items or 4 MB. They consume 2x normal RCU/WCU.
Q: What is DAX?
A: DynamoDB Accelerator — an in-memory, write-through cache that delivers microsecond read latency. API-compatible with DynamoDB.
Q: What is a DynamoDB partition key design best practice?
A: Choose a high-cardinality attribute to distribute data evenly across partitions. Avoid hot partitions caused by skewed access patterns.
Q: What does TTL do in DynamoDB?
A: TTL automatically deletes expired items in the background without consuming WCU. Useful for session data, logs, and temporary records.
Q: How do you handle large items exceeding 400 KB?
A: Store the item metadata in DynamoDB and the large payload in S3. Store the S3 object key as an attribute.
Q: What consistency does a GSI support?
A: GSIs only support eventually consistent reads. For strongly consistent reads, query the base table.