Domain 4 · 18% of Exam

Troubleshooting and Optimization

Domain 4 tests your ability to troubleshoot, monitor, and optimize AWS applications using observability tools, caching, and performance tuning.

What You'll Be Tested On

  • Tracing and debugging with X-Ray segments, annotations, and service maps
  • Monitoring with CloudWatch metrics, alarms, Logs Insights, and custom metrics
  • Lambda troubleshooting: timeouts, memory, concurrency, and error handling
  • Caching strategies with ElastiCache, DAX, CloudFront, and API Gateway
  • Auto Scaling configuration and optimization
  • Performance optimization for DynamoDB, S3, and API Gateway

Key AWS Services in This Domain

Exam Tips for Domain 4

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X-Ray annotations are indexed and searchable; metadata is not — use annotations for filtering traces.

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CloudWatch embedded metric format lets you emit custom metrics from Lambda without PutMetricData calls.

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DAX is a DynamoDB-specific cache; ElastiCache is general-purpose — know when to use each.

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For API Gateway 429 errors, check throttling limits; for 504 errors, check Lambda timeout or backend latency.

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