This DEA-C01 practice question tests your understanding of data store management. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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 runs a production Amazon Redshift cluster with a 5-node ra3.4xlarge configuration. The data engineer observes that write operations are failing with 'Disk Full' errors on some nodes. The cluster has not reached its total capacity. What should the engineer do to resolve this issue?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Recreate the table with a different distribution style to avoid data skew.
Redshift distributes data across nodes, but if data distribution is skewed, some nodes may run out of disk space. Recreating the table with a different distribution style (e.g., DISTKEY on a column with high cardinality) can balance the data. Option D is correct. Option A: adding more nodes increases capacity but does not fix skew. Option B: enabling compression reduces storage but may not fix skew. Option C: using SORT KEY improves query performance, not disk usage.
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.
✓
Recreate the table with a different distribution style to avoid data skew.
Why this is correct
Choosing an appropriate DISTKEY distributes data evenly across nodes.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Change the sort keys to distribute data evenly.
Why it's wrong here
SORT keys affect order, not distribution.
✗
Enable compression on all tables.
Why it's wrong here
Compression reduces storage but may not resolve skew.
✗
Add more nodes to the cluster.
Why it's wrong here
Adding nodes increases capacity but doesn't address data skew.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
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.
Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
→Underline the problem statement mentally.
→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 DEA-C01 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
Data Store Management — This question tests Data Store Management — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Recreate the table with a different distribution style to avoid data skew. — Redshift distributes data across nodes, but if data distribution is skewed, some nodes may run out of disk space. Recreating the table with a different distribution style (e.g., DISTKEY on a column with high cardinality) can balance the data. Option D is correct. Option A: adding more nodes increases capacity but does not fix skew. Option B: enabling compression reduces storage but may not fix skew. Option C: using SORT KEY improves query performance, not disk usage.
What should I do if I get this DEA-C01 question wrong?
Identify which DEA-C01 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
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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