DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A company is using Amazon S3 for a data lake. The data engineer needs to ensure that all new objects are automatically encrypted with a customer-managed KMS key and that the bucket policy enforces encryption. Which THREE steps should be taken? (Choose THREE.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse lifecycle policies (which manage object transitions) with encryption enforcement, or they think CloudTrail can enforce encryption rather than just audit it.
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
✓
Configure default encryption on the bucket to use SSE-KMS.
Configuring default encryption on the S3 bucket to use SSE-KMS ensures that any object uploaded without an explicit encryption header is automatically encrypted with the specified customer-managed KMS key. This satisfies the requirement for automatic encryption of all new objects.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Configure default encryption on the bucket to use SSE-KMS.
Why this is correct
Ensures new objects are encrypted with SSE-KMS by default.
- ✓
Add a bucket policy that denies PutObject if the x-amz-server-side-encryption header is not set to aws:kms.
Why this is correct
Enforces encryption on every upload.
- ✓
Create a customer-managed KMS key.
Why this is correct
Required for SSE-KMS with customer-managed key.
- ✗
Use a lifecycle policy to apply encryption to existing objects.
Why it's wrong here
Lifecycle policies do not apply encryption retroactively.
- ✗
Enable AWS CloudTrail to monitor encryption.
Why it's wrong here
Logging does not enforce encryption.
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
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 →
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 uses Amazon S3 as its data lake. A data engineer needs to enforce encryption of data at rest using server-side encryption with AWS KMS. Which S3 bucket property should be configured?
easy- ✓ A.Default encryption
- B.Server access logging
- C.Versioning
- D.Bucket policy
Why A: Configuring default encryption on an S3 bucket ensures that all objects stored in the bucket are encrypted at rest using server-side encryption. When AWS KMS is specified as the encryption type, S3 automatically encrypts objects with a KMS key (SSE-KMS) upon upload, even if the upload request does not include encryption headers. This enforces encryption at rest without requiring changes to client applications.
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.