DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A data engineer needs to ingest real-time clickstream data from a website into Amazon S3 for analytics. The data arrives as JSON records, each under 1 KB. The engineer wants to use a serverless solution with automatic scaling and minimal operational overhead. Which AWS service should be used as the ingestion endpoint?
⚠ Common exam trap
The DEA-C01 exam often tests the distinction between Kinesis Data Firehose and Kinesis Data Streams, where candidates mistakenly choose Data Streams for S3 ingestion, but Firehose is the correct serverless option for direct S3 delivery with automatic scaling and no consumer management.
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 a fully managed, serverless service designed to ingest streaming data and automatically load it into Amazon S3 with no ongoing administration. It handles automatic scaling, converts incoming JSON records to formats like Parquet or ORC if needed, and can batch data into S3 based on time or size intervals, making it ideal for real-time clickstream ingestion with minimal operational overhead.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon S3 with presigned URLs
Why it's wrong here
Presigned URLs are for direct upload, not real-time streaming.
- ✗
Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics
Why it's wrong here
Used for real-time analytics, not ingestion.
- ✓
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose
Why this is correct
Serverless, automatically scales, delivers to S3 with optional transformation.
- ✗
AWS Lambda function behind an API Gateway
Why it's wrong here
Lambda requires custom scaling and may throttle under high load.
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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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.