DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question

A data engineer is using AWS Step Functions to orchestrate a series of AWS Glue jobs that process data in Amazon S3. The engineer needs to ensure that if a Glue job fails, the entire workflow stops and an Amazon SNS notification is sent. Which Step Functions state type should be used to handle the error and send the notification?

⚠ Common exam trap

A common mix-up: candidates confuse error handling with retry logic or conditional branching; only the Catch field provides the mechanism to transition to a notification state on 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

✓

A Task state with a Catch field that transitions to a state that publishes to an Amazon SNS topic.

In AWS Step Functions, the Catch field on a Task state allows you to define a fallback state when an error occurs. By transitioning to a state that publishes to an Amazon SNS topic, the workflow can stop and send a notification. This is the correct pattern for error handling and alerting in Step Functions.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

✗
A Choice state that evaluates the output of the Glue job and branches based on success or failure.
Why it's wrong here
A Choice state is used for conditional branching based on the input, not for error handling. It cannot catch exceptions thrown by a Task state. While it could evaluate a status code if the Glue job returns one, it would not automatically handle failures; the Task state would still need a Catch to prevent the workflow from failing abruptly.
✓
A Task state with a Catch field that transitions to a state that publishes to an Amazon SNS topic.
Why this is correct
The Catch field in a Task state is used to catch errors and transition to a fallback state. By configuring a Catch that leads to a state which publishes to an SNS topic, the engineer can stop the workflow and send a notification. This is the standard way to handle errors in Step Functions and meet the requirement.
✗
A Parallel state that runs the Glue job and an SNS notification task simultaneously.
Why it's wrong here
A Parallel state runs multiple branches concurrently, but it does not provide error handling. If the Glue job fails, the Parallel state will fail, and the SNS notification branch may not execute as intended. This approach does not ensure that the notification is sent only on failure and does not stop the workflow cleanly.
✗
A Task state with a Retry field that retries the Glue job up to three times.
Why it's wrong here
A Retry field is used to retry a failed task, but it does not stop the workflow or send a notification. If the task continues to fail after retries, it will still transition to an error state unless a Catch is configured. Retry alone does not fulfill the requirement of stopping the workflow and notifying via SNS.

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

DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question

Why each option matters

Option-by-option breakdown

AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison

Related to this question