DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A data engineer is designing a data ingestion pipeline for clickstream data that arrives in bursts, up to 100 MB/s, and must be processed with exactly-once semantics. The data must be stored in Amazon S3 partitioned by event date and hour. Which combination of services should the engineer use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates choose Kinesis Data Streams with Lambda (Option A) for real-time processing, overlooking Lambda's throughput limits and the fact that Firehose is purpose-built for high-volume streaming ingestion with automatic partitioning and exactly-once delivery to S3.
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 S3 destination and dynamic partitioning.
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose with dynamic partitioning can directly ingest high-velocity clickstream data (up to 100 MB/s bursts) and automatically partition it by event date and hour in S3 with no custom code. It supports exactly-once delivery to S3 when configured with the `S3DestinationConfiguration` and appropriate error handling, meeting the burst throughput and partitioning requirements without managing consumers.
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 Kinesis Data Streams with AWS Lambda consumer writing to S3.
Why it's wrong here
Lambda may introduce latency and scaling issues at high throughput.
- ✓
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose with S3 destination and dynamic partitioning.
Why this is correct
Firehose handles bursts and supports partitioning with no custom code.
- ✗
AWS Glue streaming ETL job reading from Amazon MSK and writing to S3.
Why it's wrong here
Glue streaming ETL is for structured streaming, but MSK adds complexity.
- ✗
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams with KCL application writing to S3.
Why it's wrong here
KCL requires custom development and management.
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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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.