CLF-C02 Cloud Technology and Services Practice Question
A company needs to provide its data scientists with access to a petabyte-scale data warehouse that can run complex analytical queries. The company wants a fully managed solution that can scale automatically and integrate with existing business intelligence tools. Which AWS service should the company use?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse Amazon Athena, which queries data in S3, with a data warehouse; Athena is serverless and does not store data or provide data warehouse management features.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Amazon Redshift
Amazon Redshift is a fully managed, petabyte-scale data warehouse that supports complex analytical queries and integrates with business intelligence tools. It uses columnar storage and massively parallel processing to deliver high performance. Redshift can automatically scale and offers features like Redshift Spectrum to query data in S3. The other options are either transactional databases or query services that do not provide a complete data warehouse solution.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon Athena
Why it's wrong here
Amazon Athena is an interactive query service that analyzes data directly in Amazon S3 using standard SQL. It is serverless and pay-per-query, but it is not a data warehouse; it does not provide persistent storage or advanced data warehouse features like concurrency scaling and workload management. For a petabyte-scale data warehouse with complex queries, Redshift is more suitable.
- ✗
Amazon RDS
Why it's wrong here
Amazon RDS is a managed relational database service for online transaction processing (OLTP) workloads. It is not optimized for petabyte-scale analytical queries, and vertical scaling limits make it unsuitable for large data warehouse workloads. While it supports read replicas, it lacks the columnar storage and massively parallel processing needed for complex analytics at this scale.
- ✗
Amazon DynamoDB
Why it's wrong here
Amazon DynamoDB is a NoSQL key-value and document database designed for high-performance at any scale, but it is not a data warehouse and does not support complex SQL analytical queries. It is optimized for transactional workloads with single-digit millisecond latency, and while it can handle large volumes, it lacks the analytical capabilities and integration with BI tools required here.
- ✓
Amazon Redshift
Why this is correct
Amazon Redshift is a fully managed, petabyte-scale data warehouse service designed for running complex analytical queries. It uses columnar storage and massively parallel processing to deliver fast query performance. Redshift integrates with standard SQL-based business intelligence tools and can automatically scale with Redshift Spectrum and concurrency scaling, making it the appropriate choice for this scenario.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
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JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
This CLF-C02 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CLF-C02 exam.