DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question
A company is using AWS Glue to catalog data stored in Amazon S3. The data is partitioned by year, month, and day. A data analyst reports that new partitions are not automatically discovered by the Glue crawler. The crawler runs on a schedule every hour. What is the MOST likely reason for the missing partitions?
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
✓
The IAM role used by the crawler does not have permission to list the S3 bucket.
The IAM role used by the crawler must have permissions to list the S3 bucket and read its objects. Without s3:ListBucket permission, the crawler cannot discover new partitions in the bucket, even if it runs on schedule. Option B is incorrect because the crawler does not need a Hive metastore connection to discover partitions in S3; it can update the Glue Data Catalog directly. Option C is incorrect because the partition limit is 1,000,000 (not 100,000) per table, and the scenario does not indicate that limit is reached. Option D is incorrect because running the crawler every hour is a reasonable frequency; if permissions are correct, it should discover new partitions at that interval.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
The IAM role used by the crawler does not have permission to list the S3 bucket.
Why this is correct
Without s3:ListBucket permission, the crawler cannot see new partitions.
- ✗
The Glue Data Catalog is not configured to use a Hive metastore.
Why it's wrong here
Glue Data Catalog is a managed Hive metastore; no additional configuration needed.
- ✗
The number of partitions exceeds the Glue catalog limit of 100,000.
Why it's wrong here
The limit is higher, and the error would be different.
- ✗
The crawler schedule is set to run too frequently.
Why it's wrong here
More frequent runs would not prevent discovery; the issue is likely a permission problem.
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.