DEA-C01 Data Security and Governance Practice Question
A company uses AWS Lake Formation to manage permissions on a data lake stored in S3. A data scientist is unable to query a table in Amazon Athena, receiving an 'Access Denied' error. The data scientist has IAM permissions to call Athena and has been granted SELECT permission on the table in Lake Formation. 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
✓
The S3 bucket containing the data is not registered as a Lake Formation location.
The most likely cause is that the S3 bucket containing the data is not registered as a Lake Formation location. Lake Formation manages permissions for registered S3 locations, but if the bucket is not registered, Lake Formation cannot enforce its permissions, and the data scientist would rely on S3 bucket policies, which may deny access. Option A is incorrect because DESCRIBE permission is not required for querying. Option B is incorrect because encryption is not mentioned as an issue. Option C is incorrect because bucket policies are not the primary issue if the bucket is registered; the error occurs because the bucket is not registered.
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 data scientist does not have DESCRIBE permission on the table.
Why it's wrong here
DESCRIBE is not required for SELECT.
- ✗
The data is encrypted with SSE-KMS and the data scientist lacks kms:Decrypt permission.
Why it's wrong here
Possible, but less likely given Lake Formation handles S3 access.
- ✗
The S3 bucket policy denies access to the data scientist's IAM role.
Why it's wrong here
Lake Formation overrides bucket policies for registered locations.
- ✓
The S3 bucket containing the data is not registered as a Lake Formation location.
Why this is correct
Prevents Lake Formation from granting S3 access.
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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JA
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.