DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A company stores application logs in Amazon S3 and uses AWS Glue crawlers to populate the AWS Glue Data Catalog. A data engineer needs to query the logs with Amazon Athena. The logs are partitioned by year/month/day in S3, but Athena queries are scanning all partitions and returning errors about missing partitions. What should the engineer do to enable partition pruning?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is focusing on file format or query settings instead of ensuring the crawler can discover and register partitions in the Data Catalog.
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
✓
Run the AWS Glue crawler with the option to update the table's partition metadata and ensure the crawler has permission to list the partition folders.
For Athena to use partition pruning, the AWS Glue Data Catalog must contain accurate partition metadata. The crawler needs permission to list the S3 partition folders and must be configured to update partitions. Once partitions are registered, Athena can prune and avoid scanning irrelevant data, resolving the errors and improving performance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Run the AWS Glue crawler with the option to update the table's partition metadata and ensure the crawler has permission to list the partition folders.
Why this is correct
The crawler must be able to list the partition folders and add partition metadata to the Data Catalog. If partitions are missing, Athena cannot prune and may error. Configuring the crawler to detect partitions and granting S3 list permissions ensures the catalog is updated, enabling Athena to use partition pruning and avoid scanning all data.
- ✗
Convert the logs to Parquet format and re-crawl the data.
Why it's wrong here
Converting to Parquet improves compression and columnar reads, but it does not fix missing partition metadata in the Data Catalog. Athena would still lack partition information and could not prune. The core issue is that partitions are not registered, so format conversion alone does not resolve the error or enable partition pruning.
- ✗
Increase the Athena query timeout and retry the queries.
Why it's wrong here
Query timeout is not the cause of missing partition errors. Increasing timeout does not add partition metadata to the catalog. Athena needs to know the partition locations to prune; without that, queries either scan everything or fail. This action does not address the root cause and would not enable partition pruning.
- ✗
Move the logs to a single prefix without date partitions and update the crawler.
Why it's wrong here
Removing date partitions eliminates the ability to prune by date, which would make queries scan even more data. The goal is to enable partition pruning, not remove partitions. Updating the crawler on a non-partitioned prefix does not solve the missing partition metadata issue and would worsen performance.
Visual reference
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 — 1,321 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 →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
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.