DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question
A data engineer needs to back up an Amazon DynamoDB table daily. The backup must be restorable to a specific point in time within the last 24 hours. Which solution meets these requirements with the LEAST operational overhead?
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
✓
Enable point-in-time recovery (PITR) on the table.
DynamoDB's point-in-time recovery (PITR) provides continuous backups that allow restoration to any point within the last 35 days with no manual scheduling. Option A is incorrect because on-demand backups are manual and not continuous. Option B is incorrect because DynamoDB Streams captures changes in near-real time but does not provide a backup mechanism; it is used for event-driven processing and replication, not for point-in-time restoration. Option D is incorrect because exporting to S3 requires manual scheduling and is not a backup feature.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Create an on-demand backup of the table every 24 hours.
Why it's wrong here
Creating an on-demand backup every 24 hours does not provide point-in-time recovery within the last 24 hours; it only gives a single snapshot.
- ✗
Use DynamoDB Streams to replicate data to another table.
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB Streams captures changes to items but does not provide a backup mechanism for restoring a table to a previous state.
- ✓
Enable point-in-time recovery (PITR) on the table.
Why this is correct
Point-in-time recovery allows restoring to any second within the last 35 days with no operational overhead, meeting the requirement exactly.
- ✗
Export the table data to Amazon S3 every 6 hours using a Lambda function.
Why it's wrong here
Exporting to S3 requires custom scheduling and does not provide native point-in-time restore capability.
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
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.