AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate Databases Syllabus

Databases syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for Databases in AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Relational Databases

   3 topics

   • Amazon RDS
     • Supported engines (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server)
     • Multi-AZ deployments for high availability
     • Read replicas for scaling reads
     • Automated backups, snapshots and point-in-time recovery
   • Amazon Aurora
     • Aurora storage architecture and replicas
     • Aurora Serverless v2 and Global Database
   • RDS Proxy and connection pooling
2. 2

   NoSQL & Purpose-Built Databases

   3 topics

   • Amazon DynamoDB
     • Partition keys, sort keys and item design
     • On-demand vs provisioned capacity and auto scaling
     • Global Secondary and Local Secondary Indexes
     • DynamoDB Streams, DAX and Global Tables
   • Amazon ElastiCache
     • Redis vs Memcached
     • Caching strategies (lazy loading, write-through)
   • Specialized databases
     • Amazon Neptune, Amazon Timestream and Amazon QLDB
     • Amazon DocumentDB and Amazon Keyspaces
3. 3

   Database Operations & Migration

   3 topics

   • AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
     • Homogeneous vs heterogeneous migrations
     • AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT)
   • Choosing the right database for a workload
   • Database security, encryption and IAM authentication

Databases flashcards for AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate

25 of 51 cards from the Databases deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What is Amazon RDS?

   A managed relational database service that handles provisioning, patching, backups, recovery, and scaling for engines like MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server, and Amazon Aurora.

2. Which database engines does Amazon RDS support?

   MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, and Amazon Aurora (MySQL- and PostgreSQL-compatible).

3. What does RDS Multi-AZ provide and is the standby readable?

   High availability via synchronous replication to a standby in another Availability Zone with automatic failover. The standby is NOT readable; it exists only for failover/durability.

4. What is the purpose of RDS Read Replicas?

   To scale read traffic using asynchronous replication. Read Replicas serve read-only queries and can be promoted to standalone databases; they can span Regions (cross-Region read replicas).

5. Multi-AZ vs Read Replicas in RDS: what is each used for and what replication type?

   Multi-AZ = high availability/disaster recovery, synchronous, not readable, auto-failover. Read Replicas = read scaling, asynchronous, readable, manual promotion.

6. How do RDS automated backups differ from manual DB snapshots?

   Automated backups occur daily plus transaction logs, enable point-in-time recovery, and are deleted when the instance is deleted (retention 1-35 days). Manual snapshots are user-initiated and persist until explicitly deleted.

7. What is the retention range for RDS automated backups?

   0 to 35 days (0 disables automated backups; default is typically 7 days).

8. What is RDS point-in-time recovery (PITR)?

   Restoring a database to any specific second within the backup retention period by replaying transaction logs onto a daily backup; it creates a new DB instance.

9. What is Amazon Aurora?

   A MySQL- and PostgreSQL-compatible relational database built for the cloud, offering up to 5x MySQL / 3x PostgreSQL performance, with a distributed, fault-tolerant, self-healing storage layer.

10. How does Aurora replicate and store data for durability?

    It keeps 6 copies of data across 3 Availability Zones (2 copies per AZ), with self-healing storage that auto-repairs disk errors.

11. How many copies are needed for Aurora reads and writes to succeed?

    Writes need 4 out of 6 copies (4/6 quorum); reads need 3 out of 6 copies (3/6 quorum).

12. How does Aurora storage auto-scale?

    Storage automatically grows in 10 GB increments up to 128 TiB without provisioning, and you pay only for what is used.

13. What are Aurora Replicas and how many can a cluster have?

    Up to 15 Aurora Replicas that share the same storage volume, provide read scaling, and offer fast (typically sub-30-second) automatic failover; they have lower replica lag than RDS read replicas.

14. What is the difference between the Aurora cluster (writer) endpoint and reader endpoint?

    The cluster/writer endpoint always points to the current primary (writes); the reader endpoint load-balances connections across all Aurora Replicas (reads).

15. What is Amazon Aurora Serverless?

    An on-demand, auto-scaling configuration of Aurora that automatically starts, scales capacity (in ACUs), and shuts down based on application demand, ideal for variable or unpredictable workloads.

16. What is Aurora Global Database?

    A feature that spans up to 6 secondary Regions with replication latency typically under 1 second, sub-second cross-Region read scaling, and disaster recovery with RTO under ~1 minute (promote a secondary Region).

17. What is Aurora Backtrack?

    A feature (Aurora MySQL) that rewinds the database to a prior point in time in place, without restoring from a backup, within a configured backtrack window.

18. What is Amazon RDS Proxy?

    A fully managed, highly available database proxy that pools and shares connections to RDS/Aurora, reducing failover times and protecting databases from connection floods, especially from serverless (Lambda) apps.

19. Why is connection pooling important for serverless apps connecting to RDS?

    Lambda can open many short-lived concurrent connections, exhausting database connections. RDS Proxy pools and reuses connections, preventing exhaustion and reducing CPU/memory overhead.

20. How does RDS Proxy improve failover times?

    It holds client connections while routing to a healthy database, reducing failover time by up to ~66% and making failover transparent to applications.

21. What authentication does RDS Proxy support and is it publicly accessible?

    It supports IAM authentication and enforces credentials via AWS Secrets Manager. RDS Proxy is never publicly accessible; it must be accessed from within a VPC.

22. What is Amazon DynamoDB?

    A fully managed, serverless, key-value and document NoSQL database delivering single-digit-millisecond performance at any scale, with automatic scaling and built-in high availability across 3 AZs.

23. What is a DynamoDB partition key vs a composite (partition + sort) key?

    A partition key alone uniquely identifies an item via its hash. A composite key uses partition key + sort key, allowing multiple items per partition key, sorted by the sort key, enabling range queries.

24. What is the maximum size of a single DynamoDB item?

    400 KB, including attribute names and values.

25. Difference between a DynamoDB Local Secondary Index (LSI) and Global Secondary Index (GSI)?

    LSI shares the partition key but uses a different sort key and must be created at table creation (consumes table capacity). GSI has a different partition and sort key, can be created anytime, and has its own provisioned throughput.

See more Databases flashcards →

Planning Databases for AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate

Databases (AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate) FAQ