DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A data engineer needs to ingest data from an Amazon Kinesis Data Stream into an Amazon S3 bucket. The data must be delivered in near real time, and the engineer wants to minimize operational overhead by using a fully managed service that can also transform the data format from JSON to Parquet. Which AWS service should be used?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse Kinesis Data Firehose with Kinesis Data Streams or Kinesis Client Library, or assuming AWS Glue can handle real-time ingestion with format conversion out of the box.
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
✓
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose is the correct choice because it is fully managed, can ingest from Kinesis Data Streams, and supports built-in conversion of JSON to Parquet before delivering to Amazon S3. It requires minimal operational effort and provides near real-time delivery. The other options either require custom code, are batch-oriented, or do not support the required source and transformations.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS Glue ETL job
Why it's wrong here
AWS Glue ETL jobs are batch-oriented and not designed for near real-time streaming ingestion from Kinesis Data Streams. While Glue can process streaming data with AWS Glue Streaming ETL, it requires more configuration and management compared to Firehose. Additionally, Glue ETL does not natively deliver to S3 in near real time; it typically runs on a schedule or micro-batch basis, increasing operational overhead.
- ✓
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose
Why this is correct
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose is a fully managed service that can read from Kinesis Data Streams, transform data using AWS Lambda or built-in format conversion, and deliver to Amazon S3. It supports converting JSON to Parquet using the built-in record format conversion feature, which requires a AWS Glue table schema. This minimizes operational overhead and provides near real-time delivery.
- ✗
Amazon Kinesis Client Library (KCL) application
Why it's wrong here
The Kinesis Client Library is a Java library that helps build custom consumer applications for processing data from Kinesis Data Streams. It requires the engineer to write and manage the application code, handle scaling, checkpointing, and error handling. This increases operational overhead and does not provide built-in transformation to Parquet or direct delivery to S3, failing the requirement for a fully managed service.
- ✗
AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS)
Why it's wrong here
AWS DMS is designed for migrating databases and replicating data between database engines, not for ingesting streaming data from Kinesis Data Streams. It cannot read from Kinesis Data Streams as a source. While DMS can write to S3, it does not support Kinesis as a source, and it does not perform JSON to Parquet conversion. Therefore, it is not suitable for this scenario.
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 |
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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
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.