DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A data engineer is building a data lake on Amazon S3. The engineer needs to catalog metadata for data stored in Parquet format and make it queryable by Amazon Athena. The data is partitioned by year, month, and day in the S3 path. Which AWS service should the engineer use to create and manage the table definitions and partitions?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is thinking that Athena has its own separate data catalog, when in fact it relies exclusively on the AWS Glue Data Catalog for table metadata.
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
✓
AWS Glue Data Catalog
AWS Glue Data Catalog is the metadata store for Amazon Athena. It allows the data engineer to define table schemas and partitions that Athena can query directly. Using the Glue Data Catalog ensures seamless integration and simplifies data discovery and querying.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon Athena Data Catalog
Why it's wrong here
Amazon Athena does not have a separate data catalog; it uses the AWS Glue Data Catalog as its metastore. There is no standalone Athena Data Catalog service. The engineer should use AWS Glue Data Catalog to define metadata for Athena queries.
- ✓
AWS Glue Data Catalog
Why this is correct
AWS Glue Data Catalog is a centralized metadata repository that stores table definitions, schemas, and partition information. It integrates natively with Amazon Athena, allowing the engineer to define tables and partitions once and query them directly from Athena without additional configuration.
- ✗
AWS Lake Formation
Why it's wrong here
AWS Lake Formation is used for access control and permissions on data lakes, not for creating table definitions. While it uses the Glue Data Catalog, it does not replace it. The engineer needs a catalog to define tables, which is provided by AWS Glue.
- ✗
Amazon S3 Inventory
Why it's wrong here
Amazon S3 Inventory provides a scheduled report of objects and metadata in a bucket, but it does not create queryable table definitions or manage partitions for Athena. It is used for auditing and inventory, not for data cataloging.
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
One of 1,321 original DEA-C01 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. 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.