DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A company is using Amazon Redshift for analytics. The cluster has 20 nodes and the data is evenly distributed. Query performance has degraded over time. The data engineer suspects that table maintenance is needed. Which set of operations should be performed to improve query performance?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates familiar with PostgreSQL may mistakenly apply PostgreSQL-specific maintenance commands like VACUUM FULL or REINDEX, not realizing that Amazon Redshift is based on a different architecture (columnar storage, no indexes) and only supports VACUUM and ANALYZE for table maintenance.
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
✓
Run VACUUM and ANALYZE commands on all tables
Over time, Amazon Redshift tables accumulate deleted rows and unsorted data due to UPDATE and DELETE operations, which degrades query performance. Running VACUUM reclaims space and re-sorts data according to the table's sort key, while ANALYZE updates table statistics used by the query optimizer. Together, these operations restore data layout and enable efficient query planning, directly addressing the performance degradation.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Run VACUUM and ANALYZE commands on all tables
Why this is correct
VACUUM reclaims space and sorts rows; ANALYZE updates statistics for the optimizer.
- ✗
Run VACUUM FULL on all tables
Why it's wrong here
VACUUM FULL locks tables and is resource-intensive.
- ✗
Run REINDEX on all tables
Why it's wrong here
Redshift uses sort keys, not B-tree indexes.
- ✗
Run ALTER TABLE APPEND to reorganize data
Why it's wrong here
ALTER TABLE APPEND moves data between tables.
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.