DEA-C01 Data Security and Governance Practice Question
A data engineer is troubleshooting an AWS Glue ETL job that fails with an access denied error when writing to an S3 bucket. The Glue job uses an IAM role that has an S3 bucket policy attached. The bucket policy denies access to any principal that does not use server-side encryption. What is the most likely cause of the failure?
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 Glue job is not using server-side encryption when writing to S3.
If the Glue job does not set the encryption header (or the role does not have the kms:GenerateDataKey permission for SSE-KMS), the bucket policy will deny the request. Option A is wrong because Glue requires permissions on the S3 bucket and KMS key. Option B is wrong because VPC endpoints do not cause access denied errors for encryption. Option D is wrong because S3 Block Public Access does not deny write access to authorized roles.
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 VPC endpoint policy for S3 is too restrictive.
Why it's wrong here
VPC endpoints do not cause access denied errors for encryption.
- ✗
The IAM role does not have s3:PutObject permission.
Why it's wrong here
Glue requires permissions on the S3 bucket and KMS key.
- ✓
The Glue job is not using server-side encryption when writing to S3.
Why this is correct
The bucket policy denies requests without encryption, causing access denied even if the role has PutObject permission.
- ✗
The S3 bucket uses S3 Block Public Access which denies all writes.
Why it's wrong here
S3 Block Public Access prevents public access, not authorized writes.
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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JA
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.