DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question

Exhibit

{
  "Version": "2012-10-17",
  "Statement": [
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "kinesis:GetRecords",
        "kinesis:GetShardIterator",
        "kinesis:DescribeStream",
        "kinesis:ListShards"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:kinesis:us-east-1:123456789012:stream/my-stream"
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "firehose:PutRecord",
        "firehose:PutRecordBatch"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:firehose:us-east-1:123456789012:deliverystream/my-firehose"
    },
    {
      "Effect": "Allow",
      "Action": [
        "s3:PutObject"
      ],
      "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-bucket/*"
    }
  ]
}

A data engineer is troubleshooting a Lambda function that reads from a Kinesis Data Stream, processes records, and writes to a Kinesis Data Firehose delivery stream. The Firehose delivery stream is configured to deliver data to an S3 bucket. The Lambda function is failing with an access denied error. The IAM policy attached to the Lambda execution role is shown in the exhibit. Which permission is missing?

⚠ Common exam trap

Candidates often confuse permissions for Kinesis Data Streams and Kinesis Data Firehose. Writing to a Firehose delivery stream requires firehose:PutRecord, not kinesis:PutRecord, which is for Kinesis Data Streams.

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

✓

firehose:PutRecord on the Firehose delivery stream

The Lambda function is failing due to a missing permission to write to the Kinesis Data Firehose delivery stream. The required permission is firehose:PutRecord (or firehose:PutRecordBatch). The IAM policy likely lacks this permission, causing an access denied error when the Lambda attempts to write records. Option A correctly identifies this missing permission.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

✓
firehose:PutRecord on the Firehose delivery stream
Why this is correct
Firehose ingestion uses the PutRecord (and PutRecordBatch) API, distinct from kinesis:PutRecord used for Kinesis Data Streams. Without firehose:PutRecord on the delivery stream, the Lambda execution role's write attempt is denied, producing the access denied error.
✗
firehose:DescribeDeliveryStream on the Firehose delivery stream
Why it's wrong here
DescribeDeliveryStream is a read-only metadata action; the failure occurs when invoking PutRecord or PutRecordBatch, so describing the stream cannot resolve it. DescribeDeliveryStream would be the missing permission if the function needed to inspect stream configuration, such as destination or status, before writing.
✗
logs:CreateLogGroup and logs:CreateLogStream on the CloudWatch log group
Why it's wrong here
The failure is an access denied error on Kinesis or Firehose operations, so CloudWatch Logs permissions are unrelated to that denial. Adding logging permissions is tempting because Lambda needs them to emit logs, but missing logs permissions cause silent logging failures, not access denied errors on stream reads or writes.
✗
s3:PutObjectAcl on the S3 bucket
Why it's wrong here
Firehose writes objects to S3 using its own service role, not the Lambda execution role, so s3:PutObjectAcl is irrelevant to the Lambda's access-denied error. PutObjectAcl would be required if the function itself wrote objects directly to S3 while setting object-level ACLs.

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

DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question

Exhibit

Why each option matters

Option-by-option breakdown

AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison

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