DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
This DEA-C01 practice question tests your understanding of data ingestion and transformation. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
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?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "minimum / minimize"
Why it matters: Asks for the least resource use — fewest addresses, smallest subnet, lowest overhead. Eliminate over-provisioned options even if they would technically work.
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.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
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.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "minimum / minimize" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
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.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often 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.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
DMS ongoing replication uses the MySQL binary log (binlog) in row-based format to capture insert, update, and delete operations at the transaction level, then streams these changes to S3 as CSV, Parquet, or JSON files. The replication slot or binlog position is tracked to ensure exactly-once delivery semantics. In real-world scenarios, this allows ingesting thousands of transactions per second with sub-second latency while keeping the source database load under 5% CPU overhead.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Data Ingestion and Transformation — This question tests Data Ingestion and Transformation — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: 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.
What should I do if I get this DEA-C01 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "minimum / minimize". Asks for the least resource use — fewest addresses, smallest subnet, lowest overhead. Eliminate over-provisioned options even if they would technically work.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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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.
Question Discussion
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