DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A company is ingesting log files from EC2 instances into CloudWatch Logs and then wants to deliver them to S3 for long-term storage and analysis. The data engineer needs to ensure the logs are delivered to S3 within 5 minutes of being generated. Which approach meets this requirement?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse the batch export feature (which has a 12-hour latency) with a real-time solution, or assume a Lambda-based approach is simpler without considering the latency and management overhead of custom code.
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 CloudWatch Logs subscription filter with Kinesis Data Firehose to deliver to S3
CloudWatch Logs subscription filters can stream log data in near real-time to Kinesis Data Firehose, which then delivers the data to S3 with a buffer interval configurable down to 60 seconds, easily meeting the 5-minute requirement. This approach provides the lowest latency for automated, continuous delivery without custom code.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Configure a CloudWatch Logs metric filter and invoke a Lambda function to write to S3
Why it's wrong here
This adds latency and complexity; not as reliable as Firehose.
- ✗
Use CloudWatch Logs Insights to query logs and save results to S3
Why it's wrong here
Insights is for ad-hoc queries, not real-time delivery.
- ✓
Use CloudWatch Logs subscription filter with Kinesis Data Firehose to deliver to S3
Why this is correct
Firehose can deliver to S3 within minutes.
- ✗
Use the CloudWatch Logs export to S3 feature
Why it's wrong here
Export is a batch operation that can take hours.
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
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 1,711 original DEA-C01 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.