DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A company is ingesting large volumes of sensor data into Amazon S3. The data must be encrypted at rest using an AWS KMS customer managed key. Which TWO actions are required to enable server-side encryption with AWS KMS (SSE-KMS) on the S3 bucket?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often think a bucket policy denying unencrypted uploads alone is sufficient to enable SSE-KMS, but it only enforces that uploads must include encryption headers—it does not automatically apply encryption, so the default encryption setting is also required.
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
✓
Set the default encryption on the S3 bucket to AWS-KMS and specify the KMS key
Setting the default encryption on the S3 bucket to AWS-KMS and specifying the KMS key ensures that all objects uploaded to the bucket are automatically encrypted with SSE-KMS using that customer managed key. This is the primary configuration step to enforce server-side encryption at rest with a customer managed key.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable S3 Versioning on the bucket
Why it's wrong here
Versioning is not required for SSE-KMS.
- ✓
Set the default encryption on the S3 bucket to AWS-KMS and specify the KMS key
Why this is correct
This configures SSE-KMS for all objects.
- ✗
Enable Amazon CloudWatch Logs for the bucket
Why it's wrong here
Not related to encryption.
- ✗
Add a bucket policy that denies uploads without encryption
Why it's wrong here
Not required for default encryption.
- ✓
Ensure the IAM role/user has kms:Encrypt permission on the KMS key
Why this is correct
Without permissions, uploads will fail.
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.