A company has a serverless application that includes an Amazon API Gateway API, an AWS Lambda function, and an Amazon DynamoDB database. Which AWS service can the company use to trace user requests as they move through the application's components?

AWS X-Ray is the service designed specifically for analyzing and debugging distributed applications. It collects data about requests as they travel through the various components of an application, such as API Gateway, Lambda, and DynamoDB. X-Ray provides a service map that visualizes the connections between services and helps identify performance bottlenecks, errors, and the root cause of issues. It allows developers to trace a single request from start to finish, which directly addresses the company's requirement.

A. AWS CloudTrail is a governance, compliance, and audit service that logs API calls made to AWS accounts, not for tracing application request paths.
B. Amazon CloudWatch is a monitoring service for resources and applications, collecting logs and metrics, but it does not provide end-to-end request tracing maps.
C. Amazon Inspector is an automated security assessment service that checks for vulnerabilities and deviations from best practices, not for performance tracing.

1. AWS Documentation. (n.d.). What Is AWS X-Ray?. AWS X-Ray Developer Guide. Retrieved from https://docs.aws.amazon.com/xray/latest/devguide/aws-xray.html. (See the introductory paragraph).

2. AWS Documentation. (n.d.). AWS X-Ray. Amazon Web Services, Inc. Retrieved from https://aws.amazon.com/xray/. (See section: "Benefits").

3. AWS Documentation. (n.d.). Comparing AWS CloudTrail and Amazon CloudWatch Logs. AWS CloudTrail User Guide. Retrieved from https://docs.aws.amazon.com/awscloudtrail/latest/userguide/cloudtrail-and-cloudwatch-logs.html.