Amazon Aurora is AWS's cloud-native relational engine compatible with PostgreSQL and MySQL APIs—storage auto-scales, replicas share the same storage volume, and failover is fast.
Aurora highlights
- Up to 15 read replicas with low replication lag
- Storage grows automatically in 10 GB increments
- Aurora Serverless v2 scales capacity for variable workloads
- Global Database for cross-region disaster recovery (awareness)
Aurora vs standard RDS
Aurora costs more per hour but offers higher performance and simpler read scaling for demanding OLTP. Standard RDS PostgreSQL may suffice for small Django projects on free tier.
List Aurora clusters
aws rds describe-db-clusters \
--query 'DBClusters[].{Id:DBClusterIdentifier,Engine:Engine,Status:Status}' \
--output tablePractice: Use RDS and DynamoDB free tier where eligible. Delete sandbox databases when finished—storage and instance hours can incur charges.
Important interview questions and answers
- Q: Aurora PostgreSQL compatibility?
A: Wire protocol compatible—many Postgres clients and ORMs work with endpoint swap. - Q: Shared storage benefit?
A: Replicas read same underlying storage—faster provisioning than traditional replication copy.
Self-check
- Name two Aurora advantages over single-instance RDS.
- When might standard RDS PostgreSQL be enough?
Tip: Aurora shines at high OLTP scale; free-tier learners often start with RDS PostgreSQL.
Interview prep
- Aurora advantage?
Cloud-native storage with fast replicas and auto-growing storage.
- Postgres compatible?
Aurora PostgreSQL supports many Postgres clients and ORMs.