DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A data engineering team is ingesting streaming data from IoT devices into Amazon Kinesis Data Streams. The data is then consumed by an AWS Lambda function that transforms each record and writes it to Amazon S3. Recently, the Lambda function started failing with 'ProvisionedThroughputExceededException' errors when writing to S3. The team has already increased the Lambda function's memory and timeout. Which action should the team take to resolve the issue?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse the source of the error (Kinesis vs. S3) and incorrectly assume that increasing Kinesis shards will fix the S3 throttling, or they mistake S3 Transfer Acceleration for a solution to rate limits when it only improves network latency.
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
✓
Implement retries with exponential backoff in the Lambda function for S3 put operations.
The 'ProvisionedThroughputExceededException' error indicates that the Lambda function is being throttled by S3 due to exceeding the bucket's request rate limits. Implementing retries with exponential backoff in the Lambda function for S3 put operations is the correct solution because it allows the function to gracefully handle transient throttling errors by waiting progressively longer between retries, which aligns with AWS's guidance for managing S3 request rate limits.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Use S3 Batch Operations to write data in batches.
Why it's wrong here
Batch Operations is for post-hoc processing, not real-time streaming writes.
- ✗
Increase the number of shards in the Kinesis data stream.
Why it's wrong here
This addresses Kinesis throughput but not S3 throttling.
- ✗
Enable S3 Transfer Acceleration on the destination bucket.
Why it's wrong here
This improves transfer speed but does not handle throttling errors.
- ✓
Implement retries with exponential backoff in the Lambda function for S3 put operations.
Why this is correct
This handles transient S3 throttling by retrying with backoff.
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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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.