DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question
A data engineer is using AWS Step Functions to orchestrate a series of AWS Glue jobs and Amazon EMR steps. The state machine has a task that starts a Glue job and waits for completion using the 'StartJobRun' API with the 'sync' integration. Occasionally, the Step Functions execution fails with the error: 'States.TaskFailed: Glue job failed with error: ResourceNumberLimitExceededException'. The engineer confirms that the Glue job itself runs successfully when triggered manually. What is the most likely cause of this intermittent failure?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is focusing on Step Functions limits, but the error explicitly comes from AWS Glue and relates to its concurrent job runs quota.
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 AWS Glue job is hitting the concurrent job run limit for the account.
The error 'ResourceNumberLimitExceededException' from AWS Glue indicates that the account has reached the maximum number of concurrent job runs. Step Functions may trigger the job multiple times concurrently, or other processes may be running Glue jobs. The engineer should check the Glue service quotas and either increase the concurrent runs limit or implement a queueing mechanism to serialize job starts.
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 Glue job's script has a bug that causes it to fail only when run in parallel.
Why it's wrong here
While parallel execution could expose race conditions, the error 'ResourceNumberLimitExceededException' is not a script bug but a service quota error. If the script had a bug, the error would likely be a runtime exception like a null pointer or syntax error. The specific exception points to exceeding a resource limit, such as concurrent job runs.
- ✗
The IAM role used by Step Functions lacks permissions to start the Glue job.
Why it's wrong here
If the IAM role lacked permissions, the error would be an access denied or authorization error, not 'ResourceNumberLimitExceededException'. That exception is a service quota issue, indicating that the request was authorized but could not be fulfilled due to a limit. Permission problems would prevent the job from starting at all, not cause intermittent failures.
- ✓
The AWS Glue job is hitting the concurrent job run limit for the account.
Why this is correct
AWS Glue enforces a limit on the number of concurrent job runs per account. When multiple Step Functions executions trigger the same Glue job simultaneously, or when other processes start Glue jobs, the account may exceed the concurrent runs quota, causing the 'ResourceNumberLimitExceededException'. Since the job succeeds manually, the issue is likely contention for Glue concurrent runs, not the job code.
- ✗
The Step Functions state machine is exceeding the maximum number of concurrent executions.
Why it's wrong here
Step Functions has a default concurrency limit, but exceeding it would result in a different error, such as 'ExecutionLimitExceeded'. The error 'ResourceNumberLimitExceededException' is specific to AWS Glue and indicates that a service quota for Glue resources has been reached, not Step Functions concurrency.
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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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