DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
Exhibit
Refer to the exhibit.
CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE my_table (
id INT,
name STRING,
value DOUBLE
)
ROW FORMAT SERDE 'org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.io.parquet.serde.ParquetHiveSerDe'
STORED AS INPUTFORMAT 'org.apache.hadoop.mapred.TextInputFormat'
OUTPUTFORMAT 'org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.io.HiveIgnoreKeyTextOutputFormat'
LOCATION 's3://my-bucket/data/'
TBLPROPERTIES ('classification'='parquet');A data engineer runs the above DDL statement in Amazon Athena. The query returns an error. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
The DEA-C01 exam often tests the distinction between SerDe and InputFormat, leading candidates to incorrectly blame the SerDe (Option A) when the actual issue is the InputFormat, which controls how the file is physically read from storage.
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
✓
The INPUTFORMAT is incorrect for Parquet files.
The DDL statement uses the default INPUTFORMAT 'org.apache.hadoop.mapred.TextInputFormat', which is designed for text-based files like CSV or JSON, not for binary columnar formats like Parquet. Parquet requires 'org.apache.hadoop.hive.ql.io.parquet.MapredParquetInputFormat' to correctly read the file's metadata and compressed column chunks. Using the wrong INPUTFORMAT causes Athena to fail when attempting to parse the Parquet file, resulting in an error.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The SerDe is not compatible with Parquet files.
Why it's wrong here
ParquetHiveSerDe is correct for Parquet.
- ✓
The INPUTFORMAT is incorrect for Parquet files.
Why this is correct
TextInputFormat is for text files, not Parquet. Should use Parquet input format.
- ✗
The S3 bucket location does not exist.
Why it's wrong here
The error is due to incompatible format, not missing location.
- ✗
The table name contains underscores.
Why it's wrong here
Underscores are allowed in Athena table names.
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