DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A company needs to ingest data from a MySQL database into Amazon S3 in near real-time. The database is running on EC2. The data engineer wants to minimize the impact on the source database. Which service should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse AWS Glue's batch JDBC capabilities with streaming ingestion, or assume that a read replica can directly feed data into S3 without an intermediary service like DMS or Kinesis.
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
✓
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication
AWS DMS with ongoing replication (change data capture) is the correct choice because it can continuously replicate changes from a MySQL source database to Amazon S3 with minimal performance impact. DMS uses a transactional log-based approach (MySQL binlog) to capture changes as they occur, avoiding heavy SELECT queries on the source. This enables near real-time ingestion without adding significant load to the production database.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication
Why this is correct
DMS CDC uses binary logs to capture changes with minimal overhead.
- ✗
AWS Glue ETL job with a JDBC connection
Why it's wrong here
Glue will perform full table scans, which can impact source database performance.
- ✗
Amazon RDS for MySQL with read replica
Why it's wrong here
Read replica only works if source is RDS, not EC2.
- ✗
AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT)
Why it's wrong here
SCT is for schema conversion, not data ingestion.
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.