DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question
A data engineer is troubleshooting a step function that orchestrates ETL jobs. The state machine fails with 'State Machine Execution Throttled' error. What should the engineer do to resolve this?
⚠ Common exam trap
DEA-C01 often tests the misconception that throttling errors are code or configuration bugs to be fixed inside the state machine, when in reality they are service quota limits that require a quota increase request.
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
✓
Request a service quota increase for concurrent executions.
The 'State Machine Execution Throttled' error in AWS Step Functions occurs when the account hits the service quota for concurrent state machine executions (default 1,000 per region, or lower for certain execution types). The correct remediation is to request a service quota increase via the AWS Service Quotas console for the 'Concurrent executions' quota of Step Functions. This directly addresses the throttling cause rather than masking it.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Reduce the number of steps in the state machine.
Why it's wrong here
Throttling arises from exceeding the State Machine API request-rate quota, not from step count; reducing steps leaves the call frequency unchanged. It tempts engineers because oversized state machines do hit execution limits, so trimming steps is correct when the error is a history or definition-size limit, not throttling.
- ✗
Set up a CloudWatch alarm to detect throttling and retry.
Why it's wrong here
A CloudWatch alarm only reports that throttling occurred; it neither raises the execution quota nor prevents the failure. Alarms suit observability and paging when you need notification of breaches, whereas the throttle requires a quota increase request.
- ✗
Adjust the API rate limits in the state machine definition.
Why it's wrong here
Step Functions throttling is governed by account-level service quotas, not parameters inside the Amazon States Language definition; no rate-limit field exists there to adjust. Editing the definition suits tuning retry intervals or timeouts, not raising execution quotas.
- ✓
Request a service quota increase for concurrent executions.
Why this is correct
Requesting a quota increase for concurrent executions directly addresses the throttling constraint: Step Functions limits how many state machine executions can run simultaneously per account and Region. When ETL jobs peak and hit that ceiling, new executions are rejected with 'Execution Throttled'. Raising the quota via Service Quotas lifts the ceiling, allowing the required parallelism.
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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
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