DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A data engineer is designing a serverless data ingestion pipeline that uses Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose to deliver data to Amazon S3. The data must be transformed using AWS Lambda before being written to S3. Which two steps are required to enable this transformation? (Select TWO.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse post-delivery transformations (using S3 event notifications) with in-stream transformations (using Firehose's built-in Lambda integration), leading them to select Option A instead of the correct Firehose-specific configuration.
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
✓
Configure a Lambda function as a data transformation source in the Firehose delivery stream.
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose can be configured to invoke a Lambda function as a data transformation source. This allows Firehose to pass incoming records to the Lambda function, which processes and returns the transformed records before they are delivered to the S3 destination. Option C is correct because the Lambda function must return data in the specific format that Firehose expects, including a record ID, result status, and base64-encoded data, otherwise the transformation will fail.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Set up an S3 event notification to trigger the Lambda function on object creation.
Why it's wrong here
This triggers Lambda after data is written, not before.
- ✓
Configure a Lambda function as a data transformation source in the Firehose delivery stream.
Why this is correct
This enables Firehose to invoke Lambda for transformation.
- ✓
Ensure the Lambda function returns the transformed data in the format required by Firehose.
Why this is correct
Firehose expects a specific response format from the Lambda function.
- ✗
Subscribe the Lambda function to the CloudWatch Logs log group for the Firehose stream.
Why it's wrong here
This is for monitoring, not for data transformation.
- ✗
Have the Lambda function write the transformed data directly to the S3 bucket.
Why it's wrong here
This bypasses Firehose and is not the intended design.
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.