DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A company uses Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose to deliver data to Amazon S3. The data is transformed using an AWS Lambda function. Some records fail transformation and are lost because the Lambda function throws an exception. The data engineer needs to capture the failed records for analysis without affecting the pipeline. What should the engineer do?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse Firehose's 'backup' mode (which copies all records) with the 'error output' configuration (which only captures failed records), or they assume that modifying the Lambda function to handle failures is the only option, missing the native Firehose feature that requires no code changes.
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
✓
Configure the Firehose delivery stream to send failed records to a backup S3 bucket
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose natively supports a 'backup' or 'error output' configuration: when a Lambda transformation fails (e.g., throws an exception), Firehose can automatically route the failed records to a designated Amazon S3 bucket for failed data. This allows the engineer to capture and analyze the failed records without blocking or altering the main delivery pipeline, as the stream continues processing successfully transformed records.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Configure the Firehose delivery stream to send failed records to a backup S3 bucket
Why this is correct
Firehose can be configured to send failed records to a backup S3 bucket.
- ✗
Increase the buffer size of the Firehose stream
Why it's wrong here
Buffer size does not capture failed records.
- ✗
Disable the Lambda transformation and process all records in batch later
Why it's wrong here
This loses real-time transformation benefits.
- ✗
Modify the Lambda function to write failed records to Amazon DynamoDB
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB is not a native backup destination for Firehose.
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.