DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question
A data engineer is designing a data lake on Amazon S3. The data includes sensitive personally identifiable information (PII). Which combination of services would provide the most comprehensive data protection?
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
✓
Enable S3 Block Public Access and use Amazon Macie to discover and classify PII
Combining S3 Block Public Access prevents unintended public exposure, and Amazon Macie automatically discovers, classifies, and protects sensitive PII. Option A is incorrect because S3 Transfer Acceleration speeds up uploads but does not protect data; versioning helps with accidental deletion but not confidentiality or access control. Option B is incorrect because SSE-KMS only provides encryption at rest, not comprehensive protection against misconfigurations or authorized access to PII. Option C is incorrect because CloudWatch Logs monitor and audit access but do not prevent exposure or classify data; MFA Delete protects against accidental deletion but not against data leaks.
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 S3 Transfer Acceleration and enable versioning
Why it's wrong here
These features do not protect PII.
- ✗
Enable S3 server-side encryption with AWS KMS
Why it's wrong here
Encryption alone does not prevent unauthorized access.
- ✗
Use Amazon CloudWatch Logs to monitor access and enable MFA Delete
Why it's wrong here
Monitoring does not prevent data exposure.
- ✓
Enable S3 Block Public Access and use Amazon Macie to discover and classify PII
Why this is correct
Block Public Access prevents exposure; Macie identifies and alerts on PII.
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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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.