DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question
A data engineer is monitoring an AWS Glue ETL job that processes data from Amazon DynamoDB to Amazon S3. The job is taking longer than expected. The engineer suspects that the job's parallelism is not optimal. Which THREE actions can improve the job's performance? (Choose THREE.)
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
✓
Enable the 'groupFiles' option in the S3 sink to coalesce small files.
Enabling 'groupFiles' in the S3 sink coalesces small files into larger ones, reducing the number of write operations and improving write performance. Option C is correct because increasing MaxCapacity (DPU) allocates more processing units, increasing parallelism and processing speed. Option E is correct because increasing 'dynamodb.throughput.read.percentage' allocates a higher percentage of the table's provisioned read capacity to the Glue job, allowing more parallel reads from DynamoDB. Option B is incorrect because decreasing 'dynamodb.splits' reduces the number of parallel readers, which can lower parallelism and slow down the job. Option D is incorrect because disabling job bookmarks results in reprocessing all data each run, which increases processing time and does not improve performance.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Enable the 'groupFiles' option in the S3 sink to coalesce small files.
Why this is correct
Coalescing small files reduces the number of output files and improves write performance.
- ✗
Decrease the 'dynamodb.splits' parameter to reduce the number of parallel readers.
Why it's wrong here
Decreasing splits reduces parallelism, making the job slower.
- ✓
Increase the 'MaxCapacity' (DPU) setting for the Glue job.
Why this is correct
More DPUs allow more parallel processing.
- ✗
Disable job bookmark to avoid storing metadata.
Why it's wrong here
Disabling job bookmark does not improve performance; it may cause reprocessing of old data.
- ✓
Increase the 'dynamodb.throughput.read.percentage' parameter to allocate more read capacity.
Why this is correct
This increases the number of segments and parallelism when reading from DynamoDB.
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.