A database workload needs consistent >16,000 IOPS on a single EBS volume. Which volume type is designed for this?
A.gp3 general purpose
gp3 tops out at 16K IOPS — above that you need io2.
B.io2 Block Express provisioned IOPS
Provisioned IOPS class = io2. Correct.
C.st1 throughput-optimized HDD
st1 is throughput (MB/s) optimized, not IOPS.
D.sc1 cold HDD
sc1 is cheapest cold HDD — lowest performance.
Why this answer
gp3 caps at 16,000 IOPS; io2/io2 Block Express scales to 256,000 IOPS with sub-millisecond latency — designed for critical I/O-intensive databases. st1/sc1 are HDD classes for throughput/sequential workloads, not high IOPS.
Correct answer: B · Last reviewed 2026-11-02
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