DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A company is ingesting streaming data from social media feeds using Amazon Kinesis Data Streams. The data is consumed by multiple applications: one for real-time sentiment analysis and another for archival to S3. The data must be processed in order for each social media post. Which TWO approaches meet the requirements? (Choose TWO.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers assume multiple shards are always better for throughput, but they overlook that ordering guarantees are per-shard only, so without a proper partition key, records across shards can be processed out of order.
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 a single shard in the Kinesis Data Streams and have all consumers read from that shard
Using a single shard ensures that all records are processed in the exact order they are ingested, as Kinesis Data Streams guarantees ordering within a shard. Since both consumers (real-time sentiment analysis and archival to S3) read from the same shard, they will each receive records in the same sequence, meeting the requirement for ordered processing of each social media post.
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 Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose to buffer and deliver to S3
Why it's wrong here
Firehose does not guarantee ordering.
- ✗
Use Amazon SQS FIFO queues between the stream and consumers
Why it's wrong here
Adds complexity and may not be necessary.
- ✓
Use a single shard in the Kinesis Data Streams and have all consumers read from that shard
Why this is correct
Single shard guarantees ordering.
- ✓
Use a partition key that ensures related records go to the same shard
Why this is correct
Partition keys route records to shards, maintaining order per shard.
- ✗
Use multiple shards and assign each consumer to a specific shard
Why it's wrong here
Ordering is only per shard, not across shards.
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.