DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A data engineer is designing a pipeline to ingest data from an Amazon Kinesis Data Stream into an Amazon S3 bucket. The data must be delivered in near real-time with minimal latency, and the engineer wants to use a fully managed service that automatically scales. The data is in JSON format and needs to be converted to Parquet before storage. Which AWS service should be used to achieve this?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is overlooking Firehose's built-in format conversion capability and assuming that a custom Lambda or Glue job is required to convert JSON to Parquet.
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 record format conversion enabled to Parquet.
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose is the correct choice because it is a fully managed service that can ingest from a Kinesis Data Stream, automatically scale, and deliver to Amazon S3 with near real-time latency. It supports record format conversion from JSON to Parquet using a Glue Data Catalog table, eliminating the need for custom code.
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 Firehose with record format conversion enabled to Parquet.
Why this is correct
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose is a fully managed service that can ingest data from a Kinesis Data Stream and deliver it to Amazon S3. It supports record format conversion from JSON to Parquet using an AWS Glue Data Catalog table schema. Firehose automatically scales to handle the throughput and provides near real-time delivery (with buffer intervals as low as 60 seconds). This meets all requirements without custom code.
- ✗
AWS Lambda function that reads from the Kinesis stream, converts JSON to Parquet, and writes to S3.
Why it's wrong here
This option is incorrect because while Lambda can process Kinesis streams and convert formats, it requires writing and maintaining code for the conversion and S3 writing. It is not a fully managed, no-code solution for format conversion. Additionally, Lambda has limitations on memory and execution time, which could affect performance for high-throughput streams. The scenario asks for a fully managed service that automatically scales.
- ✗
AWS Glue streaming ETL job that reads from Kinesis, converts to Parquet, and writes to S3.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Glue streaming ETL requires writing and maintaining a Glue job script, which involves coding. While Glue can perform the conversion, it is not a fully managed, no-code solution for simple ingestion and format conversion. Additionally, Glue streaming jobs have a minimum billing duration and may not be as cost-effective or low-latency as Firehose for this use case.
- ✗
Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics application that reads from Kinesis and writes Parquet to S3.
Why it's wrong here
Kinesis Data Analytics (now Managed Service for Apache Flink) is designed for real-time analytics using SQL or Apache Flink, not for simple ingestion and format conversion. It requires developing an application, which involves coding. It is not a fully managed, no-code solution for delivering data to S3 in Parquet format.
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 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.