DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question
A data engineer is monitoring an Amazon Kinesis Data Streams application that processes real-time events. The application uses a Kinesis Client Library (KCL) consumer. The engineer notices that the consumer is lagging behind the producer, and the lag is increasing over time. The stream has 10 shards. Which action will MOST effectively reduce the lag?
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
✓
Increase the number of shards in the Kinesis data stream.
Increase the number of shards in the Kinesis data stream. Increasing shards increases the stream's read capacity and allows more parallel consumers to process data, which reduces lag. Option A is incorrect because using multiple KCL workers per shard is not recommended; each shard should be processed by one worker to avoid duplicate processing. Option C is incorrect because decreasing the number of records per shard per second would reduce throughput, not help catch up. Option D is incorrect because decreasing shards reduces capacity, worsening lag.
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 multiple KCL workers per shard to increase processing capacity.
Why it's wrong here
KCL assigns one worker per shard; multiple workers per shard can cause issues.
- ✓
Increase the number of shards in the Kinesis data stream.
Why this is correct
More shards increase the stream's read and write capacity.
- ✗
Decrease the number of records per shard per second.
Why it's wrong here
This reduces throughput, increasing lag.
- ✗
Decrease the number of shards in the Kinesis data stream.
Why it's wrong here
Fewer shards reduce capacity, increasing lag.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
Courseiva writes every DEA-C01 question from scratch — 1,711 in total, each with an explanation and a wrong-answer breakdown. None are copied from real exams or dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.