DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A company stores time-series sensor data in Amazon S3. They need to query the data using SQL with minimal latency and no infrastructure management. Which service should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse Amazon Athena with Amazon Redshift Spectrum, but the question explicitly requires 'no infrastructure management,' which eliminates Redshift; also, Kinesis Data Analytics is mistakenly chosen by those who think it can query static S3 data, but it is strictly for real-time streams.
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
✓
Amazon Athena
Amazon Athena is the correct choice because it is a serverless interactive query service that allows you to analyze data directly in Amazon S3 using standard SQL without any infrastructure to manage. It is optimized for querying structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data stored in S3, making it ideal for time-series sensor data with minimal latency requirements.
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 Kinesis Data Analytics
Why it's wrong here
Kinesis Data Analytics processes streaming data, not batch queries on S3.
- ✓
Amazon Athena
Why this is correct
Athena is serverless and directly queries S3 using SQL.
- ✗
Amazon Redshift
Why it's wrong here
Redshift requires provisioning and managing clusters.
- ✗
Amazon DynamoDB
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB is a NoSQL database, not designed for SQL queries on S3 data.
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
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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.