DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A company is migrating an on-premises Hadoop cluster to AWS. The data is stored in HDFS and needs to be accessible by both Amazon EMR and Amazon Redshift Spectrum. Which storage solution is most cost-effective and scalable?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to choose Amazon FSx for HDFS because it seems like a direct lift-and-shift of the on-premises Hadoop setup, but they fail to recognize that S3 is the recommended and more cost-effective solution for decoupled storage in AWS big data architectures.
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
✓
Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)
Amazon S3 is the most cost-effective and scalable storage solution for this use case because it provides native integration with both Amazon EMR (via S3A connector or EMRFS) and Amazon Redshift Spectrum (via external tables). Unlike HDFS, S3 decouples compute from storage, allowing you to pay only for the data stored and the compute resources used, with virtually unlimited scalability and 99.999999999% durability.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon FSx for HDFS
Why it's wrong here
FSx for HDFS is expensive compared to S3 and not necessary for this use case.
- ✓
Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)
Why this is correct
S3 is highly scalable, durable, and can be queried by Redshift Spectrum and processed by EMR.
- ✗
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)
Why it's wrong here
EBS volumes are attached to a single instance and not cost-effective for large datasets.
- ✗
Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)
Why it's wrong here
EFS is a file system for Linux instances, not optimal for large-scale data lakes.
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
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on DEA-C01
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company is migrating an on-premises Hadoop cluster to AWS. The cluster processes large files in CSV format using Apache Spark. Which data store should be used as the primary storage for the data lake to optimize cost and performance?
medium- A.Amazon EMR File System (EMRFS) backed by HDFS
- B.Amazon RDS for MySQL
- C.Amazon EBS volumes attached to the EMR cluster
- ✓ D.Amazon S3
Why D: Amazon S3 is the most suitable primary storage for a data lake on AWS due to its high durability, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. It integrates seamlessly with Amazon EMR and Apache Spark for processing large CSV files. Option A is wrong because EMRFS is a connector that allows EMR to access data in S3, not a separate storage system; it is not an alternative to HDFS. Option B is wrong because Amazon RDS for MySQL is a relational database service, not designed for storing large-scale data lake files like CSV. Option C is wrong because Amazon EBS volumes are block-level storage for EC2 instances, which are limited in scalability and not cost-effective for large data lakes, especially when used as primary storage.
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.