DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A data engineer is using AWS Glue to transform data from Amazon S3 and load it into Amazon Redshift. The job runs daily and processes only new data added since the last run. The engineer notices that the job is reprocessing old data, increasing runtime and cost. Which AWS Glue feature should be enabled to ensure only new data is processed?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates confuse incremental crawls or event-driven triggers with job bookmarks, which are specifically needed for incremental ETL processing within AWS Glue.
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
✓
Job bookmarks
Job bookmarks are the AWS Glue feature designed to track processed data and enable incremental processing. When enabled, the job reads only new data based on S3 object metadata. This reduces runtime and cost by avoiding reprocessing. The other options do not provide this capability: DataBrew is for data preparation, crawler incremental crawl updates the catalog, and S3 event notifications are for triggering actions.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS Glue DataBrew
Why it's wrong here
AWS Glue DataBrew is a visual data preparation tool for cleaning and normalizing data. It does not provide job bookmarking or incremental processing capabilities for ETL jobs. DataBrew is used for data profiling and transformation, but it is not integrated with Glue ETL job bookmarks. Therefore, it cannot solve the reprocessing issue.
- ✓
Job bookmarks
Why this is correct
AWS Glue job bookmarks track the data that has already been processed in previous runs. When enabled, the job reads only new data based on the last modified time of objects in S3. This prevents reprocessing of old data, reducing runtime and cost. It is the standard feature for incremental data processing in AWS Glue.
- ✗
Amazon S3 event notifications
Why it's wrong here
Amazon S3 event notifications can trigger a Lambda function or other actions when new objects are created, but they do not directly control AWS Glue job data processing. While you could use event notifications to trigger a Glue job, the job would still need bookmarks to avoid reprocessing old data if it runs on a schedule or is triggered multiple times. Event notifications alone do not provide incremental processing within Glue.
- ✗
AWS Glue Crawler incremental crawl
Why it's wrong here
An AWS Glue crawler can perform incremental crawls to update the Data Catalog with new partitions, but it does not control which data an ETL job processes. The ETL job still reads all data in the specified path unless job bookmarks are enabled. Incremental crawls help with catalog updates, not with ETL job data selection.
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 |
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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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