The answer is to increase the number of DPUs. Allocating more Data Processing Units to the Glue job directly boosts parallelism and memory, which is critical when reading from DynamoDB’s provisioned throughput and writing large Parquet files to S3. Since DynamoDB reads are I/O-bound and Glue’s Spark engine scales horizontally, adding DPUs reduces the per-worker data load and accelerates the 50 GB transformation. On the AWS Certified Data Engineer Associate DEA-C01 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of Glue’s resource scaling versus other optimization myths—many candidates mistakenly choose S3 Select or format changes, but those don’t address the DynamoDB bottleneck. A common trap is assuming smaller batch sizes help, but they actually increase overhead. Memory tip: “More DPUs, less queue”—think of DPUs as adding more checkout lanes at a busy store, not speeding up each cashier.
DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
This DEA-C01 practice question tests your understanding of data ingestion and transformation. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A data engineering team is troubleshooting a slow AWS Glue ETL job that reads from an Amazon DynamoDB table and writes to Amazon S3 in Parquet format. The job processes 50 GB of data. Which action would most effectively improve job performance?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Increase the number of DPUs
Increasing the number of DPUs (Data Processing Units) allocated to the Glue job provides more parallelism and memory, which can significantly speed up processing. Using G.1X worker type with more memory can also help. Using S3 Select is for filtering within S3, not for DynamoDB. Changing to JSON format may reduce performance due to larger file size. Reducing batch size could slow down the job.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
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 Select to push down filters
Why it's wrong here
S3 Select is for S3 objects, not for DynamoDB source.
✗
Reduce the batch size in the DynamoDB connector
Why it's wrong here
Smaller batch sizes increase the number of requests and can slow down ingestion.
✓
Increase the number of DPUs
Why this is correct
More DPUs increase parallelism and can speed up the job.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Change output to JSON format to reduce overhead
Why it's wrong here
Parquet is more efficient for analytics; JSON would be larger and slower.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
→Underline the problem statement mentally.
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which DEA-C01 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
Data Ingestion and Transformation — This question tests Data Ingestion and Transformation — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Increase the number of DPUs — Increasing the number of DPUs (Data Processing Units) allocated to the Glue job provides more parallelism and memory, which can significantly speed up processing. Using G.1X worker type with more memory can also help. Using S3 Select is for filtering within S3, not for DynamoDB. Changing to JSON format may reduce performance due to larger file size. Reducing batch size could slow down the job.
What should I do if I get this DEA-C01 question wrong?
Identify which DEA-C01 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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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.
Question Discussion
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