DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question
A company is using Amazon Athena to query data in an S3 bucket. Queries are failing with the error 'HIVE_PATH_ALREADY_EXISTS'. The data is partitioned by year, month, day. What is the MOST likely cause?
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
✓
A partition was manually added to the Glue Data Catalog that already exists
The error 'HIVE_PATH_ALREADY_EXISTS' occurs in Athena when attempting to add a partition (via ALTER TABLE ADD PARTITION or MSCK REPAIR TABLE) that already exists in the Glue Data Catalog. Option B (inconsistent data format) would cause schema mismatch errors like 'HIVE_PARTITION_SCHEMA_MISMATCH', not this error. Option C (empty S3 location) would not cause this error; queries might succeed but return no results. Option D (lack of s3:ListBucket permission) would cause permission errors like 'Access Denied'.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
A partition was manually added to the Glue Data Catalog that already exists
Why this is correct
Manually adding a partition to the AWS Glue Data Catalog when that partition already exists triggers HIVE_PATH_ALREADY_EXISTS, because Athena's metastore rejects duplicate partition locations for the year/month/day hierarchy. The error arises from the duplicate catalog entry, not from the underlying S3 data or query syntax.
- ✗
The data format in the partition is inconsistent with the table schema
Why it's wrong here
Schema mismatch surfaces as HIVE_BAD_DATA or column conversion errors during parsing, not HIVE_PATH_ALREADY_EXISTS, which is a metastore partition-registration conflict. Format inconsistency would be the diagnosis when queries return nulls or type-cast failures on correctly registered partitions.
- ✗
The S3 location for the partition is empty
Why it's wrong here
An empty partition location yields zero rows, not HIVE_PATH_ALREADY_EXISTS; Athena reads an empty prefix without error. Empty locations matter when investigating unexpectedly blank result sets, whereas this error arises from duplicate partition registration in the Glue Data Catalog.
- ✗
The IAM role used by Athena lacks s3:ListBucket permission on the bucket
Why it's wrong here
A missing s3:ListBucket permission produces AccessDenied errors when Athena reads objects, not HIVE_PATH_ALREADY_EXISTS. That permission is relevant when troubleshooting queries returning no rows or failing authorisation checks; here the error signals a partition metadata conflict instead.
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.