DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A data pipeline uses Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose to deliver data to Amazon S3. The delivery occasionally fails with 'Firehose is throttled'. What should be done to reduce throttling?
⚠ Common exam trap
The DEA-C01 exam often tests the misconception that Firehose throttling is resolved by scaling shards (like in Kinesis Data Streams), but Firehose manages its own internal shards and the correct fix is to adjust buffer settings to reduce API call frequency.
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 the buffer size and buffer interval
Increasing the buffer size and buffer interval gives Kinesis Data Firehose more time and data volume to accumulate before delivering to S3, reducing the frequency of PutRecord.Batch calls to the underlying Kinesis stream. This directly mitigates throttling by lowering the request rate, as Firehose throttling typically occurs when the per-shard write throughput limit (1,000 records/second or 1 MB/second) is exceeded.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Enable compression on the Firehose delivery stream
Why it's wrong here
Compression reduces storage but does not affect throttling.
- ✓
Increase the buffer size and buffer interval
Why this is correct
Larger buffer reduces the number of write requests.
- ✗
Decrease the buffer size to flush more frequently
Why it's wrong here
Smaller buffer increases calls, making throttling worse.
- ✗
Increase the number of shards in the Kinesis stream
Why it's wrong here
Firehose does not use shards; this applies to Kinesis Data Streams.
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.