What is the first step in calculating write throughput in DynamoDB?

Calculating write throughput in DynamoDB begins with measuring items per second. This step is crucial because understanding how many items will be written to the database within a specified time frame helps to determine the required write capacity units (WCUs) for the workload. In DynamoDB, each write operation consumes one WCU for items up to 1 KB in size; therefore, knowing the number of items that need to be written per second allows you to configure your table's capacity correctly to handle the expected load without throttling.

The other steps, while important in the overall process of managing your DynamoDB provisioning, are subsequent to this initial measurement. For example, defining items to be written and converting item sizes to bytes are important for understanding how many write capacity units will be consumed, but these actions follow the initial understanding of the write frequency. Evaluating pending write requests is more of a monitoring action that comes into play after establishing a baseline for throughput, usually to ensure performance and manage traffic effectively.