DEA-C01 Lake Formation integration with Athena Practice Question
A company is using AWS Lake Formation to manage access to data in a data lake stored in Amazon S3. A data engineer notices that users with SELECT permissions on a table can still query the underlying S3 data directly using Athena. 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
✓
The users are using a version of Athena that does not support Lake Formation
Athena workgroups using engine version 1 do not support integration with Lake Formation. In such cases, Lake Formation permissions are not enforced, and users can query the underlying S3 data directly through Athena, bypassing Lake Formation's access controls. Option A is incorrect: while a permissive S3 bucket policy could allow direct access, the most likely cause given Lake Formation integration is the Athena version. Option C is incorrect because server-side encryption does not affect Lake Formation's ability to enforce permissions. Option D is incorrect: Lake Formation does integrate with Athena, but only when using Athena engine version 2 or later.
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 S3 bucket policy allows full access to all principals
Why it's wrong here
The S3 bucket policy might allow direct access, but this is not the most likely cause because Lake Formation integrates with Athena to enforce permissions; the issue is likely the Athena version.
- ✓
The users are using a version of Athena that does not support Lake Formation
Why this is correct
Correct. Athena engine version 1 does not support Lake Formation integration, so users can bypass Lake Formation permissions and query data directly.
- ✗
The S3 bucket does not have server-side encryption enabled
Why it's wrong here
Server-side encryption is unrelated to the enforcement of Lake Formation permissions; it does not prevent direct S3 access via Athena.
- ✗
Lake Formation does not support integration with Athena
Why it's wrong here
Lake Formation does support integration with Athena when using Athena engine version 2 or later. This option is false.
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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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.