DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question
A data engineer uses Amazon EMR to run a Spark job that reads from S3 and writes to HDFS on the cluster. The job fails with an 'OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space' error in the executors. Which parameter adjustment should be made to resolve this?
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
✓
Increase spark.executor.memory
The 'OutOfMemoryError: Java heap space' in executors indicates that the executor memory is insufficient for the data being processed. Increasing spark.executor.memory allocates more heap space to each executor, directly addressing the issue. Option A (spark.default.parallelism) controls the number of tasks, not memory. Option B (spark.sql.shuffle.partitions) affects shuffle partitions but does not increase memory. Option D (spark.driver.memory) is for the driver, not executors.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increase spark.default.parallelism
Why it's wrong here
This controls parallelism, not memory.
- ✗
Increase spark.sql.shuffle.partitions
Why it's wrong here
This changes the number of partitions, not memory allocation.
- ✓
Increase spark.executor.memory
Why this is correct
This directly increases the heap size available to each executor.
- ✗
Increase spark.driver.memory
Why it's wrong here
The driver memory is not the issue; executors are running out of memory.
Visual reference
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 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.