DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question
A data engineering team is troubleshooting a failing AWS Glue ETL job that processes data from an S3 bucket. The job writes output to another S3 bucket. The job fails with an AccessDenied error when writing to the output bucket. The IAM role used by the job has the following policy attached: {"Version":"2012-10-17","Statement":[{"Effect":"Allow","Action":["s3:GetObject","s3:ListBucket"],"Resource":["arn:aws:s3:::input-bucket/*","arn:aws:s3:::input-bucket"]}]}. What is the most likely cause of the failure?
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 IAM role does not have s3:PutObject permission on the output bucket.
The IAM policy only grants s3:GetObject and s3:ListBucket permissions on the input bucket, but the job also needs permission to write to the output bucket. The missing s3:PutObject permission on the output bucket causes the AccessDenied error. Therefore, Option C is correct. Option A is incorrect because there is no data size restriction. Option B is incorrect because the error is due to missing IAM permissions, not a bucket policy. Option D is incorrect because the role exists.
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 ETL job is processing more than 10 TB of data.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Glue does not have a 10 TB limit per job; the error is AccessDenied, not size-related.
- ✗
The output bucket has a bucket policy that denies access to the IAM role.
Why it's wrong here
There is no indication of a bucket policy; the error is due to missing IAM permissions.
- ✓
The IAM role does not have s3:PutObject permission on the output bucket.
Why this is correct
The policy lacks s3:PutObject for the output bucket, causing the AccessDenied error.
- ✗
The IAM role used by the job does not exist.
Why it's wrong here
The role exists; otherwise the job would fail earlier with a different error.
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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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.