DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question
A data engineer is investigating intermittent failures in an AWS Step Functions state machine that orchestrates a nightly ETL workflow. The state machine invokes an AWS Glue job, then an Amazon EMR step, then an AWS Lambda function. Occasionally a task fails transiently and the entire workflow stops instead of retrying. The engineer needs the workflow to automatically retry failed tasks with exponential backoff before alerting. What should the engineer do?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is assuming the retry policy lives in IAM or CloudWatch rather than being declared inside the state machine definition itself.
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
✓
Add a Retry field to the relevant state with ErrorEquals, IntervalSeconds, MaxAttempts, and BackoffRate values.
Step Functions state machines are defined in Amazon States Language, and each state can include a Retry field that matches specific error names and retries with an interval that grows by a BackoffRate multiplier. This declarative approach centralizes retry logic in the orchestrator, so transient failures in Glue, EMR, or Lambda are retried automatically before any alert is raised.
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 the state machine's execution role to include the 'states:Retry' IAM action and re-run the workflow.
Why it's wrong here
There is no 'states:Retry' IAM action; Step Functions permissions are managed through the service integration APIs, not a retry-specific action. IAM controls what the state machine can call, not how it handles transient errors. Adding a nonexistent permission will not cause failed tasks to be retried with exponential backoff.
- ✗
Configure the Glue job, EMR step, and Lambda function each with their own internal retry logic and remove error handling from the state machine.
Why it's wrong here
Moving retries into each service increases complexity and does not give the orchestrator visibility into retry state; it also fails if a service lacks native retry configuration. The requirement is centralized retry with backoff at the workflow level, which is exactly what Step Functions' Retry field provides, so this decentralized approach is inefficient and incomplete.
- ✓
Add a Retry field to the relevant state with ErrorEquals, IntervalSeconds, MaxAttempts, and BackoffRate values.
Why this is correct
Step Functions supports a Retry field on any state, where you specify which errors to match and how many times to retry with an interval and a backoff multiplier. Adding Retry with ErrorEquals, IntervalSeconds, MaxAttempts, and BackoffRate implements automatic exponential-backoff retries within the state machine, satisfying the requirement without external tooling.
- ✗
Enable the state machine's 'Retry on failure' setting in the Amazon CloudWatch console.
Why it's wrong here
CloudWatch is a monitoring and observability service; it has no state machine retry setting. Retry behavior in Step Functions is defined in the Amazon States Language within the state machine definition, not configured through CloudWatch. This option describes a capability that does not exist, so it cannot provide the required automatic retries with backoff.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
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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.