DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A company wants to ingest streaming data from Apache Kafka into Amazon S3 for long-term storage and analytics. The data is in JSON format and must be delivered to S3 with minimal effort and no custom code. Which AWS service should the data engineer use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse Kinesis Data Streams with Kinesis Data Firehose; Data Streams requires custom consumers, while Firehose provides managed delivery.
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
✓
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose with a Kafka source.
Kinesis Data Firehose is a fully managed service that can read from Apache Kafka and deliver to Amazon S3 without requiring custom code. It handles scaling, buffering, and format conversion. Other options like Kinesis Data Streams, Glue, or Managed Flink require writing and maintaining code, which does not meet the no-code requirement.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS Glue streaming ETL job.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Glue streaming ETL can read from Kafka and write to S3, but it requires writing and maintaining a Glue job script, which is custom code. It also consumes DPUs and requires more configuration. The requirement is for a no-code solution, so Glue is not the best fit.
- ✗
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams with an AWS Lambda consumer.
Why it's wrong here
Kinesis Data Streams requires custom code to read from the stream and write to S3, typically using Lambda or Kinesis Client Library. This does not meet the requirement of minimal effort and no custom code. It also requires managing the stream's capacity and the consumer application.
- ✗
Amazon Managed Service for Apache Flink.
Why it's wrong here
Managed Service for Apache Flink allows you to process streaming data with Apache Flink applications, but it requires developing and deploying Flink code. This is not a no-code solution and involves significant effort to set up and maintain, failing the minimal effort requirement.
- ✓
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose with a Kafka source.
Why this is correct
Kinesis Data Firehose can ingest data directly from Apache Kafka (via the Firehose HTTP endpoint or the Kafka connector) and deliver it to Amazon S3 without any custom code. It automatically handles scaling, buffering, and delivery, making it the most appropriate choice for minimal effort and no code.
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
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This DEA-C01 question is part of Courseiva's 1,321-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official Amazon Web Services exam blueprint
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.