DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A company ingests streaming data from social media APIs into Kinesis Data Streams. Each record is approximately 5 KB. The data must be enriched with geolocation information from a DynamoDB table before being stored in S3. The enrichment process takes about 200 ms per record. Which architecture minimizes latency and cost?
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
✓
Use Kinesis Data Firehose with a Lambda function that queries DynamoDB
Kinesis Data Firehose can invoke a Lambda function for per-record enrichment, providing automatic scaling and low operational overhead. Option A is wrong because an EC2 instance adds significant operational overhead and requires manual scaling, increasing complexity and cost. Option B is wrong because AWS Glue ETL jobs are optimized for batch processing, not continuous streaming with low latency per record. Option C is wrong because Kinesis Data Analytics (SQL) is designed for real-time analytics on streaming data, not for per-record enrichment involving external lookups like DynamoDB.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use an EC2 instance running a custom application to consume from Kinesis, enrich, and write to S3
Why it's wrong here
EC2 adds operational overhead and complexity.
- ✗
Use AWS Glue ETL jobs running continuously on the stream
Why it's wrong here
Glue ETL is for batch processing.
- ✗
Use Kinesis Data Analytics to perform enrichment with SQL
Why it's wrong here
Kinesis Data Analytics is not designed for DynamoDB lookups.
- ✓
Use Kinesis Data Firehose with a Lambda function that queries DynamoDB
Why this is correct
Firehose with Lambda can perform enrichment per record.
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 |
Go deeper
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DEA-C01 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 DEA-C01 exam.