DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A company is designing a data lake on Amazon S3. The data includes personal identifiable information (PII). The data engineer must ensure that only authorized users can access the data, and that access is logged for auditing. Which combination of services should the data engineer use?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to assume CloudTrail automatically logs all S3 operations, but it only logs management events by default; data events must be explicitly enabled, and many overlook this distinction when designing for auditing.
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
✓
S3 bucket policies with IAM policies and AWS CloudTrail with data events
S3 bucket policies combined with IAM policies provide fine-grained access control to restrict who can access the data, while AWS CloudTrail with data events logs every S3 object-level operation (e.g., GetObject, PutObject) for auditing. This combination directly meets the requirements of authorized access and logging for PII data.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
S3 bucket policies with IAM policies and AWS CloudTrail with data events
Why this is correct
Bucket and IAM policies control access; CloudTrail logs data events for auditing.
- ✗
Amazon S3 access points and VPC endpoints
Why it's wrong here
Access points help with access, but VPC endpoints don't provide logging.
- ✗
Amazon Macie to discover PII and S3 Object Lock to prevent deletion
Why it's wrong here
Macie discovers but doesn't control access; Object Lock prevents deletion, not unauthorized access.
- ✗
AWS KMS to encrypt data and AWS CloudTrail to log access
Why it's wrong here
KMS does not enforce access control; it's for encryption.
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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JA
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.