DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A company uses AWS Data Pipeline to copy data from DynamoDB to S3 daily. Recently, the pipeline started failing with 'ThrottlingException' errors. The DynamoDB table has on-demand capacity. Which action should be taken to resolve the issue?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates assume on-demand capacity eliminates all throttling, but it only handles traffic spikes within a per-second limit, so throttling can still occur with sustained high read rates, and the correct fix is to implement exponential backoff in the pipeline's retry strategy rather than modifying capacity or switching tools.
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 pipeline to use a retry strategy with exponential backoff.
ThrottlingException errors in AWS Data Pipeline when reading from DynamoDB indicate that the pipeline's read requests are exceeding the table's available throughput. Since the table uses on-demand capacity, which can handle spikes but has a per-second throughput limit, implementing exponential backoff in the pipeline's retry strategy allows it to reduce request rate upon throttling, aligning with AWS SDK best practices for handling DynamoDB throttling.
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 write capacity units of the DynamoDB table.
Why it's wrong here
The issue is read throttling, not write.
- ✗
Replace Data Pipeline with AWS Glue using a DynamoDB connector.
Why it's wrong here
Glue also reads from DynamoDB and may encounter the same throttling.
- ✓
Configure the pipeline to use a retry strategy with exponential backoff.
Why this is correct
Retries with backoff alleviate throttling by slowing down requests.
- ✗
Disable the pipeline's retry logic and increase the timeout.
Why it's wrong here
Without retries, the pipeline will fail on the first throttling.
Visual reference
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 |
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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.