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 must be transformed in real-time and then loaded into an Amazon S3 bucket for long-term storage. Which AWS service should be used to perform the transformation and delivery to S3 with minimal operational overhead?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics (which processes streams but does not deliver to S3) with Kinesis Data Firehose, or they overcomplicate the solution by selecting EMR or Glue for what is fundamentally a simple streaming ingestion and transformation task.
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 service designed to automatically load streaming data into Amazon S3, Redshift, Elasticsearch, and Splunk. It can invoke an AWS Lambda function for real-time data transformation before delivery, eliminating the need to manage any infrastructure or write custom code for the delivery pipeline. This directly meets the requirement of minimal operational overhead for transformation and S3 delivery.
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 Kinesis Data Firehose
Why this is correct
Kinesis Data Firehose can subscribe to a Kinesis Data Stream, transform data, and automatically deliver to S3.
- ✗
AWS Glue
Why it's wrong here
AWS Glue is a batch ETL service, not suitable for real-time streaming.
- ✗
Amazon EMR
Why it's wrong here
Amazon EMR is a managed Hadoop cluster that requires more operational overhead.
- ✗
Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics
Why it's wrong here
Kinesis Data Analytics is for real-time analytics, not for delivering transformed data to S3.
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 pipeline ingests streaming data from thousands of IoT devices into Kinesis Data Streams. The data must be transformed using a simple field mapping before being stored in S3. Which service should be used to perform the transformation with minimal operational overhead?
easy- A.AWS Lambda function invoked by the Kinesis stream
- B.AWS Glue ETL job
- C.Kinesis Data Analytics
- ✓ D.Kinesis Data Firehose with a Lambda transformation
Why D: Kinesis Data Firehose can invoke a Lambda function to perform simple field mapping transformations before delivering data to S3, minimizing operational overhead. Option A is wrong because AWS Lambda invoked directly by the Kinesis stream requires custom logic for S3 delivery and stream management, increasing overhead. Option B is wrong because AWS Glue ETL jobs are designed for batch processing and are more complex to set up for streaming transformations. Option C is wrong because Kinesis Data Analytics is used for real-time analytics with SQL or Flink, not simple field mapping transformations.
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.