DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
This DEA-C01 practice question tests your understanding of data ingestion and transformation. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A company uses Amazon Kinesis Data Streams to ingest clickstream data. The data is then processed by a Kinesis Data Analytics application running SQL queries. The analytics application is falling behind and processing records with increasing latency. The stream has 4 shards, and the average record size is 5 KB. What is the MOST effective way to improve processing latency?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Increase the parallelism of the Kinesis Data Analytics application.
Option D is correct because increasing the parallelism of the Kinesis Data Analytics application (e.g., by increasing the number of in-application streams or ParallelismPerKPU) allows it to consume from the stream faster, reducing latency. Option A is wrong because 5 KB is well below the 1 MB/s shard limit, so increasing shards is unnecessary. Option B is wrong because enhanced fan-out is for consumers that need low latency, but does not help if the application is CPU-bound. Option C is wrong because increasing record TTL does not affect processing speed.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Increase the number of shards in the Kinesis stream to 8.
Why it's wrong here
The stream is not the bottleneck; shards are underutilized.
✗
Enable enhanced fan-out on the Kinesis stream for the analytics application.
Why it's wrong here
Enhanced fan-out reduces contention but does not increase processing throughput of the application.
✓
Increase the parallelism of the Kinesis Data Analytics application.
Why this is correct
More parallelism allows the application to process more records per unit time.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Increase the retention period of the Kinesis stream to 7 days.
Why it's wrong here
Retention period does not affect processing speed.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
→Underline the problem statement mentally.
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which DEA-C01 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
Data Ingestion and Transformation — This question tests Data Ingestion and Transformation — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Increase the parallelism of the Kinesis Data Analytics application. — Option D is correct because increasing the parallelism of the Kinesis Data Analytics application (e.g., by increasing the number of in-application streams or ParallelismPerKPU) allows it to consume from the stream faster, reducing latency. Option A is wrong because 5 KB is well below the 1 MB/s shard limit, so increasing shards is unnecessary. Option B is wrong because enhanced fan-out is for consumers that need low latency, but does not help if the application is CPU-bound. Option C is wrong because increasing record TTL does not affect processing speed.
What should I do if I get this DEA-C01 question wrong?
Identify which DEA-C01 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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