DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A data engineer is designing a streaming pipeline that ingests IoT sensor data from 10,000 devices. Each device sends a 1 KB message every second. The data must be processed in near real-time and stored in S3 for analytics. Which combination of services provides the most cost-effective solution?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates choose MSK (Option C) thinking it is more scalable or flexible, but they overlook the higher operational cost and complexity for a simple S3 sink use case, where Kinesis Data Firehose's fully managed batching, compression, and direct S3 integration is more cost-effective and simpler to maintain.
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 Streams with Kinesis Data Firehose delivery to S3.
B is correct because Kinesis Data Streams ingests high-throughput IoT data (10,000 messages/sec at 1 KB each) with low latency, and Kinesis Data Firehose automatically batches and compresses data before delivering it to S3, eliminating the need for custom code or manual scaling. This combination provides the most cost-effective near-real-time solution by leveraging Firehose's built-in buffering and compression to minimize S3 storage costs and reduce the number of PUT requests.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS Data Pipeline with periodic S3 copy.
Why it's wrong here
Not near real-time.
- ✓
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams with Kinesis Data Firehose delivery to S3.
Why this is correct
Handles high throughput, Firehose batches to S3.
- ✗
Amazon MSK (Managed Streaming for Kafka) with Kafka Connect S3 sink.
Why it's wrong here
Amazon MSK is not the most cost-effective choice for direct IoT device ingestion at this scale. While MSK offers robust, high-throughput streaming and Kafka Connect efficiently moves data to S3, it lacks the specialised device management and optimised per-message pricing model of purpose-built IoT ingestion services. MSK would be a strong, tempting choice for general-purpose, high-volume data streaming, complex real-time processing requirements, or when integrating with existing Kafka-based applications, where its advanced features justify the cost.
- ✗
Amazon SQS FIFO queue with Lambda consumers writing to S3.
Why it's wrong here
SQS FIFO throughput is limited (300 TPS).
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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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on DEA-C01
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A data engineer is designing a real-time streaming pipeline to ingest clickstream data from a website into Amazon S3. The data must be transformed before storage. Which TWO AWS services can be used together to build this pipeline? (Choose TWO.)
easy- ✓ A.Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose
- B.AWS Glue
- ✓ C.Amazon Kinesis Data Streams
- D.Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration
- E.AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
Why A: The correct combination is Amazon Kinesis Data Streams to ingest the streaming clickstream data, and Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose to read from the stream, perform transformations (e.g., via Lambda), and deliver the transformed data to Amazon S3. Kinesis Data Streams provides the durable ingestion layer, while Kinesis Data Firehose handles the delivery and transformation without managing servers.
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.