A standard SQS queue feeds a reconciliation worker. Each job must stay hidden for four minutes after it is enqueued, before any consumer can receive it. Which setting achieves this without a scheduler?
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A
Standard queues accept a per-message delay (DelaySeconds) when a message is sent, and the message stays invisible to consumers until the delay passes. The maximum is 15 minutes. Visibility timeout only hides a message after it has been received, so it is not a send-side delay. Redrive policies move repeatedly failed messages to a dead-letter queue, and retention controls how long unread messages are kept, not when they appear.
Why the other options are wrong
- B. Visibility timeout starts after a consumer receives the message and hides it for that time. It does not delay the first delivery of a message that has just been enqueued.
- C. A redrive policy routes messages that fail processing too many times to a dead-letter queue. It affects failed messages only, so it cannot postpone when new jobs first become visible.
- D. Retention controls how long SQS keeps a message before deleting it, with a minimum of one minute. It does not hold a message back from consumers, so it cannot create the four-minute wait.
Exam tip. Per-message delay works on standard queues only; FIFO queues use a queue-level delay.