Database

7 AWS Database terms and services covered in certification exams, with exam-focused explanations.

Amazon RDS

A managed service for relational databases including MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and SQL Server. AWS handles patching, backups, and replication. The distinction between Multi-AZ (availability/automatic failover) and Read Replicas (read scalability) is the most-tested topic.

Amazon Aurora

AWS's cloud-native relational database, compatible with MySQL and PostgreSQL, using a distributed storage architecture to deliver commercial database-level performance. Selected over standard RDS when higher throughput, faster failover, or automatic storage expansion is required.

Amazon DynamoDB

A fully managed NoSQL (key-value/document) database with millisecond response at any scale. No server management; automatic scaling. Tested for its use cases (vs. schema-fixed RDS), high-throughput low-latency scenarios, and key-based access pattern design.

Amazon ElastiCache

A managed in-memory cache service providing Redis or Memcached. Keeps frequently accessed data in memory to offload the database and accelerate responses. The caching layer in architecture questions that solve read performance bottlenecks.

Amazon Redshift

A fully managed data warehouse for high-speed aggregation and analysis of large datasets using column-oriented storage and parallel processing. Positioned against RDS (OLTP) as the solution for analytical (OLAP) workloads.

Amazon DocumentDB

A managed document database compatible with MongoDB for storing and querying JSON documents. The choice for MongoDB workloads requiring managed AWS infrastructure. Appears as the document-oriented option in 'right tool for the job' database questions.

Amazon Neptune

A managed graph database for data expressed as nodes and edges. Efficiently handles traversal queries for social networks, recommendation engines, and fraud detection. Tested in 'purpose-built database' questions requiring the right fit for relationship data.

Last updated: 2026-06-24

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