DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question
A company uses Amazon Athena to query data in an S3 bucket. A data engineer notices that a query fails with the error: 'HIVE_CANNOT_OPEN_SPLIT: Error opening Hive split s3://bucket/path/file.parquet (Path does not exist)'. However, the file exists in S3. What is the most likely cause?
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
✓
Another process deleted the file after Athena listed the files but before reading.
The error 'Path does not exist' occurs when Athena has already listed the files in the table's location and then tries to read a specific file that was deleted after the listing. This is a race condition caused by concurrent operations. Option A is incorrect because an incomplete multipart upload would not cause a path-not-found error; the file would simply not be visible or be incomplete. Option B is incorrect because outdated Glue metadata would cause schema mismatches or table not found errors, not a missing file path. Option C is incorrect because a bucket policy denying access would result in an Access Denied error, not 'Path does not exist'.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The file was uploaded using S3 multipart upload and is incomplete.
Why it's wrong here
Incomplete uploads would not be listed.
- ✗
The table's metadata in the Glue Data Catalog is outdated.
Why it's wrong here
Metadata issues cause different errors.
- ✗
The S3 bucket has a bucket policy that denies access to the Athena principal.
Why it's wrong here
Permission errors are different.
- ✓
Another process deleted the file after Athena listed the files but before reading.
Why this is correct
Eventual consistency for deletions can cause this.
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.