DEA-C01 Data Security and Governance Practice Question
A company is using AWS Lake Formation to manage permissions on a data lake. They want to grant a data scientist the ability to query tables in the 'analytics' database using Amazon Athena, but prevent them from accessing the underlying S3 data directly. What is the best way to achieve this?
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
✓
Grant SELECT permission on the 'analytics' database tables in Lake Formation.
Lake Formation grants SELECT permission on named database tables, which allows querying via Athena without granting direct S3 access. Option A is incorrect because granting s3:GetObject on the entire bucket would allow the data scientist to bypass Lake Formation and access the data directly. Option C is incorrect because a policy that allows Athena queries only does not grant the necessary permissions to access the database tables. Option D is incorrect because adding the user to a data lake location with read access is too broad and would also grant direct S3 access, which does not meet the requirement of preventing direct S3 access.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Grant the data scientist an IAM policy with s3:GetObject on the S3 bucket.
Why it's wrong here
This would allow direct S3 access, which is not desired.
- ✓
Grant SELECT permission on the 'analytics' database tables in Lake Formation.
Why this is correct
Lake Formation fine-grained permissions allow querying via Athena without direct S3 access.
- ✗
Create an IAM policy that allows Athena queries only.
Why it's wrong here
Athena requires S3 access to read data; without Lake Formation, the user would need S3 permissions.
- ✗
Add the data scientist to a Lake Formation data lake location with read access.
Why it's wrong here
This grants access to the location, not specific tables.
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 |
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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.