DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A data engineer is designing a data lake on Amazon S3. The data includes customer PII that must be encrypted at rest. The company also requires that the encryption keys be rotated automatically every year. Which encryption solution should the engineer use?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to assume SSE-S3 provides customer-controlled key rotation, but SSE-S3 uses keys fully managed by AWS with no customer control over rotation frequency, whereas SSE-KMS with automatic key rotation lets the company meet the explicit annual rotation requirement.
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
✓
SSE-KMS with automatic key rotation enabled
SSE-KMS with automatic key rotation enabled meets both requirements: it encrypts data at rest in S3 and allows the company to automatically rotate the customer master key (CMK) every year. AWS KMS supports automatic annual rotation for symmetric CMKs, which satisfies the compliance need without manual intervention.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
SSE-KMS with automatic key rotation enabled
Why this is correct
SSE-KMS encrypts objects at rest using AWS KMS keys and supports automatic annual key rotation, meeting both the PII encryption and rotation requirements. SSE-S3 rotation is managed by AWS without configurable schedules, so it cannot satisfy the stated yearly rotation constraint.
- ✗
SSE-S3
Why it's wrong here
SSE-S3 provides encryption at rest but the key rotation is managed entirely by AWS and occurs approximately every 90 days, not annually. It does not allow customer control over rotation frequency, so it does not meet the annual rotation requirement.
- ✗
SSE-C
Why it's wrong here
SSE-C allows you to manage your own encryption keys, but you must manage rotation yourself, not automatic annual rotation. It also requires you to provide the encryption key with each request, adding complexity.
- ✗
Client-side encryption with AWS KMS
Why it's wrong here
Client-side encryption with AWS KMS encrypts data before sending to S3, but it still requires managing the client-side encryption process and key rotation is not automatic for the client-side keys. This adds overhead and does not fully meet the automatic annual rotation requirement in a simple manner.
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.