DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A financial services company is ingesting real-time stock trade data into Amazon Kinesis Data Streams. The data is then processed by a Kinesis Data Analytics application for fraud detection. The company must ensure that the data is processed in the correct order for each stock symbol. Which TWO configuration steps should be taken? (Choose two.)
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
✓
Use the stock symbol as the partition key when putting records into the stream.
To ensure data is processed in the correct order for each stock symbol, the partition key must group all records for the same symbol into the same shard. Using the stock symbol as the partition key (C) guarantees that all trades for a given symbol go to the same shard, preserving order within that shard. Additionally, the Kinesis Client Library (KCL) processes records within a shard in the order they arrive (E), so enabling this ensures ordered processing. Options A and B are incorrect: a random partition key (A) would distribute records across shards, breaking order; increasing shards (B) does not affect ordering. Option D is wrong because DynamoDB Streams is for change data capture, not for real-time streaming order.
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 a random partition key to distribute the load evenly.
Why it's wrong here
Random keys would scatter records, losing per-symbol ordering.
- ✗
Increase the number of shards to reduce latency.
Why it's wrong here
More shards can break ordering because different shards are processed independently.
- ✓
Use the stock symbol as the partition key when putting records into the stream.
Why this is correct
Partition key determines shard assignment; same symbol goes to same shard, preserving order.
- ✗
Use AWS Lambda with DynamoDB Streams instead of Kinesis Data Analytics.
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB Streams is for database changes, not for streaming ingestion with ordering.
- ✓
Configure the Kinesis Client Library (KCL) to process records in the order they arrive in each shard.
Why this is correct
KCL preserves record order within a shard.
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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.