DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question
A data engineer is using AWS Step Functions to orchestrate a series of AWS Glue jobs. The engineer notices that when a Glue job fails, the Step Functions execution also fails, but the engineer wants to retry the failed job up to three times with exponential backoff before failing the entire workflow. The engineer needs to implement this with minimal changes to the state machine. What should the engineer do?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse retry mechanisms at the job level with those at the orchestration level, leading to attempts to configure retries in Glue instead of Step Functions.
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
✓
Add a Retry field with MaxAttempts: 3 and BackoffRate: 2.0 to the state that invokes the Glue job.
AWS Step Functions provides native retry capabilities via the Retry field in the state definition. Specifying MaxAttempts and BackoffRate on the state that calls the Glue job enables automatic retries with exponential backoff. This is the simplest and most direct method to meet the requirement without altering the Glue job or adding external components.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Configure the Glue job to automatically retry on failure by setting the MaxRetries parameter in the job's default arguments.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Glue jobs do not have a built-in MaxRetries parameter in default arguments. Retry logic must be handled by the orchestrator, such as Step Functions. Setting a non-existent parameter would have no effect, and the job would still fail without retries, causing the workflow to fail prematurely.
- ✗
Create an Amazon CloudWatch alarm that triggers an AWS Lambda function to restart the Glue job on failure.
Why it's wrong here
This approach adds unnecessary complexity and does not integrate with Step Functions' native retry mechanism. The Lambda function would need to handle state and backoff manually, and the Step Functions execution would still fail unless modified. It is not a minimal change and can lead to inconsistent state management.
- ✗
Modify the state machine to use a Map state that iterates over the Glue job three times.
Why it's wrong here
A Map state is used for parallel processing of items in an array, not for retrying a single task. Using it to retry would require restructuring the workflow and does not provide exponential backoff. It would also run the job multiple times concurrently or sequentially without proper error handling, which is not the intended solution.
- ✓
Add a Retry field with MaxAttempts: 3 and BackoffRate: 2.0 to the state that invokes the Glue job.
Why this is correct
The Retry field in Amazon States Language allows specifying retry behavior for a state, including maximum attempts and exponential backoff. Setting MaxAttempts to 3 and BackoffRate to 2.0 will retry the Glue job up to three times with exponential backoff. This is the standard and minimal change to achieve the requirement without altering the job itself.
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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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