Question 1,703 of 1,711
DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A data engineer is troubleshooting an Amazon Redshift cluster that is experiencing slow query performance. The engineer notices that the disk space is heavily utilized and queries are spilling to disk. What is the most cost-effective solution to improve performance?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse disk space management (VACUUM, compression) with memory/query execution issues, leading them to choose storage optimization options when the real bottleneck is insufficient compute resources.
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
✓
Resize the cluster to a larger node type or add nodes
When queries spill to disk due to heavy disk utilization, the root cause is insufficient memory or compute capacity relative to the workload. Resizing the cluster (adding nodes or moving to a larger node type) directly increases available memory and CPU, reducing or eliminating disk spill and improving query performance. This is the most cost-effective solution because it scales resources proportionally without requiring manual tuning or schema changes.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Run VACUUM command to reclaim space
Why it's wrong here
Vacuum reclaims deleted space but does not add capacity.
- ✗
Change distribution style to KEY
Why it's wrong here
Distribution style affects data distribution, not disk space.
- ✓
Resize the cluster to a larger node type or add nodes
Why this is correct
Adding memory and disk reduces spilling to disk.
- ✗
Apply compression encoding to tables
Why it's wrong here
Compression reduces storage but does not solve current disk spill.
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Last reviewed: Jun 24, 2026
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.
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