DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A company needs to transfer 20 TB of historical data from an on-premises Hadoop cluster to Amazon S3. The network bandwidth is limited and the transfer must complete within one week. Which service should the company use?
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 Snowball Edge
AWS Snowball Edge is designed for large-scale data transfers (up to 80 TB per device) over limited bandwidth. It physically ships the data, bypassing network constraints entirely. The requirement of 20 TB within one week with limited bandwidth makes Snowball the ideal choice. Option A is wrong because S3 Transfer Acceleration still uses the internet and cannot guarantee completion within a week with limited bandwidth. Option C is wrong because Direct Connect provides a dedicated network connection but requires sufficient bandwidth; if bandwidth is limited, it cannot complete the transfer in time. Option D is wrong because DataSync over VPN still relies on the internet bandwidth and would not meet the deadline.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration
Why it's wrong here
Transfer Acceleration still uses the internet and may not meet bandwidth constraints.
- ✓
AWS Snowball Edge
Why this is correct
Snowball is a physical device that can transfer large data quickly.
- ✗
AWS Direct Connect with DataSync
Why it's wrong here
Direct Connect requires setup time and may not be feasible within a week.
- ✗
AWS DataSync over a VPN connection
Why it's wrong here
VPN may still be limited by bandwidth.
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
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every DEA-C01 question from scratch — 1,711 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Same concept, more angles
2 more ways this is tested on DEA-C01
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A company needs to transfer 10 TB of historical data from an on-premises HDFS cluster to Amazon S3. The data is stored on a single 20 TB disk. The network link to AWS has a bandwidth of 1 Gbps. The transfer must be completed within 2 days. Which solution meets these requirements?
easy- ✓ A.Use AWS Snowball Edge to transfer the data physically.
- B.Use Amazon Kinesis Data Streams to stream data to S3.
- C.Use AWS DMS to migrate data from HDFS to S3.
- D.Use AWS CLI to copy data directly to S3 over the network.
Why A: AWS Snowball Edge is the correct solution because it can physically transfer 10 TB of data from a single 20 TB disk within the 2-day window, bypassing the network bandwidth limitation. With a 1 Gbps link, the theoretical maximum transfer of 10 TB would take approximately 22.2 hours under ideal conditions, but real-world overhead, latency, and potential congestion make it unreliable to complete within 2 days. Snowball Edge provides a petabyte-scale physical transport solution that avoids network constraints entirely.
Variation 2. A company needs to transfer 50 TB of historical data from an on-premises HDFS cluster to Amazon S3. The network bandwidth is limited to 1 Gbps, and the transfer must complete within 10 days. The data is compressible. Which solution is MOST appropriate?
hard- ✓ A.Use AWS DataSync over a Direct Connect connection.
- B.Use Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration with multipart uploads.
- C.Use multiple parallel AWS CLI sync commands over the internet.
- D.Use AWS Snowball Edge to physically ship the data.
Why A: With a 1 Gbps link, transferring 50 TB would take approximately 111 hours (about 4.6 days) theoretically, well within the 10-day window. AWS DataSync over a Direct Connect connection provides a high-speed, secure, and reliable method to transfer large datasets online. DataSync automates the HDFS-to-S3 transfer, handles compression, and can saturate the 1 Gbps link, making it the most appropriate solution. Snowball Edge involves physical shipment and logistics, which would likely exceed the 10-day deadline. Options B and C also rely on internet bandwidth and are less efficient than DataSync.
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.