CLF-C02 Cloud Technology and Services Practice Question
A data analyst needs to run SQL queries directly against log files stored in Amazon S3 without loading the data into a database and without provisioning any servers. Which AWS service enables this?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse Amazon Athena with Amazon Redshift Spectrum, but the question explicitly states 'without provisioning any servers,' which eliminates Redshift because it requires a provisioned cluster even when using Spectrum.
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 Athena
Amazon Athena is a serverless interactive query service that allows you to analyze data directly in Amazon S3 using standard SQL. It requires no infrastructure to manage and charges only for the data scanned per query, making it ideal for ad-hoc analysis of log files without loading data into a database.
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 RDS
Why it's wrong here
Amazon RDS is a managed relational database service that still requires you to choose an instance class and provision compute and storage for a persistent database. You must first import data into RDS tables before running SQL, and RDS has no native capability to execute queries against files stored in S3 without additional tools or a running instance. Because the user needs zero-provisioning, direct S3 SQL analysis, RDS's fixed infrastructure and load-first model make it an incorrect fit.
- ✗
Amazon Redshift
Why it's wrong here
Amazon Redshift is a petabyte-scale data warehouse that requires provisioning and managing a cluster of nodes, with data typically loaded into tables via COPY or ELT before analysis. While Redshift Spectrum can query data directly in S3, it still requires an active, provisioned Redshift cluster with compute and storage resources, so it is not serverless and carries baseline costs even when idle. Athena, by contrast, has no cluster to provision, which is why Redshift fails the scenario's serverless requirement.
- ✓
Amazon Athena
Why this is correct
Athena is a serverless service that queries data directly in S3 using standard SQL. No database loading or server provisioning is required — the analyst defines a schema over the S3 data and runs SQL immediately.
- ✗
Amazon DynamoDB
Why it's wrong here
Amazon DynamoDB is a fully managed NoSQL key-value and document database optimized for transactional application workloads at extremely low latency, not for analytical SQL over files. Data must be inserted into DynamoDB tables by an application; the service cannot run SQL directly against raw objects in S3, and its query language (PartiQL or the classic API) targets table items, not CSV/JSON blobs in a data lake. In provisioned mode, DynamoDB also requires setting read/write capacity units, which conflicts with the serverless, on-demand nature of the stated use case.
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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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.