DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A data engineer needs to ingest data from an Amazon RDS for MySQL database into Amazon S3 on a daily basis. The data volume is about 50 GB per day. The engineer wants to minimize the impact on the source database. Which AWS service should be used?
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
✓
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
AWS DMS can perform full load and ongoing replication with minimal impact on the source database. Option A is wrong because AWS Glue with a JDBC connection can impact the source due to high query load. Option B is wrong because Amazon Athena Federated Query reads data directly from RDS, which can cause performance issues. Option D is wrong because AWS DataSync is designed for file storage, not databases.
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 with a JDBC connection
Why it's wrong here
Glue may cause high load on the source.
- ✗
Amazon Athena Federated Query
Why it's wrong here
Athena can query RDS but is not designed for large daily ingestion.
- ✓
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
Why this is correct
DMS is optimized for database migrations with minimal impact.
- ✗
AWS DataSync
Why it's wrong here
DataSync is for file systems, not databases.
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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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on DEA-C01
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A data engineer needs to ingest data from an Amazon RDS MySQL database into a data lake on Amazon S3. The engineer wants to perform an initial full load and then capture incremental changes. Which TWO AWS services can be combined to achieve this?
easy- A.Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose
- B.AWS Glue
- ✓ C.Amazon S3
- ✓ D.AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
- E.AWS Data Pipeline
Why C: Amazon S3 is the target data lake storage layer, not a service that performs data ingestion or change data capture. However, it is listed as a correct option because the question asks which services can be combined to achieve the goal, and S3 is the essential destination for the data lake. The actual ingestion and CDC are handled by AWS DMS, which writes full load and incremental changes directly to S3 in formats like Parquet or CSV.
JA
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.