DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A data engineer is building a data pipeline that ingests data from Amazon S3 into Amazon Redshift. The data is in CSV format and includes a timestamp column. The pipeline should load only new data incrementally. Which approach is most efficient?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates think Redshift Spectrum is a valid alternative for loading data, but Spectrum is designed for external querying, not for persistent loading into Redshift tables, which is the explicit requirement in the question.
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
✓
Use the COPY command with a manifest file that lists only the new S3 objects
Using the COPY command with a manifest file allows you to explicitly list only the new S3 objects to be loaded, enabling incremental loading without scanning or loading the entire bucket. This approach is efficient as it avoids the overhead of deduplication or full-bucket scans, and it leverages Redshift's native high-speed parallel ingestion from S3.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use the COPY command to load the entire bucket and rely on Redshift to deduplicate
Why it's wrong here
Loading all data repeatedly is inefficient and does not scale.
- ✓
Use the COPY command with a manifest file that lists only the new S3 objects
Why this is correct
A manifest file allows incremental loading by specifying only new files.
- ✗
Use Amazon Redshift Spectrum to query the S3 data directly without loading
Why it's wrong here
Spectrum does not load data into Redshift tables.
- ✗
Use INSERT statements within a loop to load each new file
Why it's wrong here
INSERT is row-based and slow for large datasets.
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.