AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02)Cloud Technology and ServicesMedium

A company is decoupling a web application from a backend order-processing service using a message queue. Message order does not need to be strictly preserved, but the company wants a highly scalable, fully managed queue that guarantees each message is delivered at least once. Which AWS service and queue type BEST fits this need?

  1. AAmazon SNS topic
  2. BAmazon Kinesis Data Streams
  3. CAmazon SQS FIFO queue
  4. DAmazon SQS Standard queue
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D. Amazon SQS Standard queue

Amazon SQS Standard queues provide nearly unlimited throughput, at-least-once delivery, and best-effort ordering, making them ideal for decoupling applications when strict message order isn't required.

Why the other options are wrong

  • A. SNS is a pub/sub notification service for fan-out messaging, not a queue for decoupled point-to-point processing.
  • B. Kinesis Data Streams is designed for real-time streaming analytics, not simple message queuing between decoupled components.
  • C. FIFO queues guarantee strict ordering but have lower throughput limits than needed for this scenario.

SQS Standard Queue

A fully managed message queue offering nearly unlimited throughput and at-least-once delivery, with best-effort message ordering.

  • Default SQS queue type
  • At-least-once delivery, possible duplicates
  • Higher throughput than FIFO queues

Memory trick: Standard queue: fast and flexible, order not guaranteed.

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