DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A data engineer must load data from an Amazon S3 bucket into an Amazon Redshift cluster as part of a nightly batch pipeline. The source files are already in Parquet format and include columns that map directly to the target table. The engineer wants the fastest, most cost-effective load method that avoids staging the data through an external service. Which command should the engineer use?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is reaching for a managed ETL service or scripted inserts when the native parallel COPY command is both faster and cheaper for schema-aligned S3 data.
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
✓
COPY command referencing the S3 bucket with an IAM role.
The COPY command performs a parallel bulk load directly from Amazon S3 into Redshift, using an IAM role for secure access. Because the Parquet files already match the target table, no intermediate transformation is required, making COPY the fastest and most economical option. Scripted inserts, Glue, and Spectrum add overhead or serve different purposes.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Redshift Spectrum external table query that selects from S3 into the target table.
Why it's wrong here
Spectrum queries data in S3 without loading it into Redshift storage, so it is used for querying external data, not populating a native table quickly. Using it to copy data in would be indirect and slower than COPY. It also does not provide the parallel bulk-load performance of COPY for data that already aligns with the target schema.
- ✗
INSERT statements generated from a Python script that reads the Parquet files.
Why it's wrong here
Row-by-row INSERT statements are extremely slow for bulk loads and generate heavy network and transaction overhead on Redshift. A script reading Parquet and issuing inserts cannot parallelize across slices the way COPY does. For a nightly batch of meaningful size, this approach would be far slower and more expensive than the native parallel load, so it fails the performance and cost requirements.
- ✓
COPY command referencing the S3 bucket with an IAM role.
Why this is correct
The COPY command loads data directly from Amazon S3 into Redshift in parallel across slices, which is the fastest and most cost-effective path for Parquet files that already match the target schema. Using an IAM role grants secure access without embedding credentials. It avoids staging through any intermediate service and is the native, recommended bulk-load mechanism for this scenario.
- ✗
AWS Glue ETL job that reads from S3 and writes to Redshift using the Spark connector.
Why it's wrong here
A Glue job can load Redshift, but it adds a managed service in the path, extra compute cost, and additional latency compared with a direct load. Since the Parquet data already matches the target schema, no transformation is needed to justify Glue. This method is valid in general but is not the fastest or most cost-effective when a direct COPY suffices.
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
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This DEA-C01 question is part of Courseiva's 1,321-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
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
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.