DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A data engineer is troubleshooting a Kinesis Data Firehose delivery stream that is experiencing high error rates when writing to an S3 bucket. The error logs indicate 'AccessDenied' errors. The S3 bucket policy allows access from the Firehose service, but the errors persist. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often assume a bucket policy allowing Firehose access is sufficient, but the IAM role assumed by Firehose must also explicitly grant the write permissions, as AWS evaluates both identity-based and resource-based policies.
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
✓
The IAM role assumed by Firehose does not have the s3:PutObject permission
The most likely cause is that the IAM role assumed by Kinesis Data Firehose lacks the `s3:PutObject` permission. Even if the S3 bucket policy allows access from the Firehose service, the IAM role must explicitly grant the necessary S3 write permissions for Firehose to deliver data. Without this permission, Firehose receives 'AccessDenied' errors when attempting to write objects to the bucket.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The S3 bucket has a lifecycle policy that is deleting objects too quickly
Why it's wrong here
Lifecycle policies do not cause AccessDenied errors.
- ✓
The IAM role assumed by Firehose does not have the s3:PutObject permission
Why this is correct
Firehose requires the IAM role to have S3 write permissions.
- ✗
The S3 bucket has default encryption enabled
Why it's wrong here
Default encryption does not cause AccessDenied errors.
- ✗
The S3 bucket uses an AWS KMS key for encryption and Firehose does not have kms:Decrypt permission
Why it's wrong here
Would cause KMS errors, not AccessDenied.
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.