DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A company uses Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose to deliver data to an Amazon S3 bucket. The data delivery is delayed by up to 5 minutes. The engineer wants to reduce the delay to under 1 minute. Which parameter should be adjusted?
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
✓
Decrease the buffer interval in Kinesis Data Firehose.
Decreasing the buffer interval reduces the time Kinesis Data Firehose waits before delivering a batch, thus lowering latency to under 1 minute. Option A is incorrect because error logging to CloudWatch does not affect delivery timing. Option B is incorrect because increasing the buffer size would actually increase the delay as Firehose waits for more data to accumulate. Option C is incorrect because enabling data compression reduces storage size but has no impact on delivery frequency.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable error logging to CloudWatch.
Why it's wrong here
CloudWatch error logging records delivery failures; it does not alter Firehose buffering. The stem's five-minute delay stems from the buffer interval and size defaults, so the fix is lowering the S3 buffer interval (and size). Error logging suits diagnosing failed deliveries, not latency tuning.
- ✗
Increase the buffer size in Kinesis Data Firehose.
Why it's wrong here
Increasing buffer size makes Firehose wait for more data or a longer interval before flushing, worsening the delay. Larger buffers suit high-volume streams where fewer, bigger S3 objects are wanted; reducing the buffer interval is what shortens delivery to under one minute.
- ✗
Enable data compression.
Why it's wrong here
Compression reduces delivered object size and storage cost; it does not shorten the buffering interval that governs delivery latency. Compression suits bandwidth- or storage-constrained pipelines, whereas the delay stems from the buffer flush interval, which must be lowered for sub-minute delivery.
- ✓
Decrease the buffer interval in Kinesis Data Firehose.
Why this is correct
Firehose buffers incoming records and delivers them when the buffer interval elapses or the buffer size fills. Lowering the buffer interval shortens the maximum wait, reducing delivery latency below one minute, whereas the size parameter alone cannot guarantee that timing.
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.