DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A company is migrating a large Oracle data warehouse to Amazon Redshift. Which THREE considerations are important for optimizing the Redshift cluster?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse cost-saving measures (reserved instances) or inherent architecture features (columnar storage) with active optimization choices, when in fact only sort keys, distribution styles, and compression encoding are configurable settings that directly impact query performance in Redshift.
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
✓
Defining appropriate sort keys for the tables.
Sort keys in Amazon Redshift determine the physical order of data on disk, which directly impacts the efficiency of range-restricted queries and compression. By defining appropriate sort keys (compound or interleaved), the query optimizer can use zone maps to skip large blocks of data that don't match the filter criteria, significantly reducing the number of blocks scanned and improving query performance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Purchasing reserved instances for the cluster.
Why it's wrong here
Cost savings, not performance optimization.
- ✗
Using columnar storage format.
Why it's wrong here
Redshift uses columnar storage by default; no special action needed.
- ✓
Defining appropriate sort keys for the tables.
Why this is correct
Improves query performance by reducing scans.
- ✓
Applying compression encoding to columns.
Why this is correct
Reduces storage and improves I/O.
- ✓
Choosing the right distribution style (KEY, ALL, EVEN).
Why this is correct
Affects data distribution across nodes.
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