DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A media company stores video files in an S3 bucket. The files are processed by a fleet of EC2 instances that read the files, add watermarks, and write the output back to the same bucket. Recently, the processing jobs have been failing with '500 Internal Server Error' and '503 Slow Down' errors. The data engineer checks the S3 bucket metrics and sees that the PUT/GET request rate is consistently above 5,500 requests per second for a single prefix. The engineer needs to resolve the errors with minimal changes to the application code. Which course of action should the engineer take?
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
✓
Modify the application to add a random hash prefix to the object keys to distribute load across multiple prefixes.
S3 supports up to 5,500 GET/HEAD requests per second per prefix (and 3,500 PUT requests). By adding a random hash prefix to object keys, the load is distributed across multiple prefixes, effectively increasing the aggregate request rate limit. Option A (S3 Batch Operations) is designed for large-scale batch operations, not for real-time processing, and would not resolve the immediate request rate errors. Option B (increasing EC2 instances) would increase the request rate, potentially worsening the problem. Option C (S3 Transfer Acceleration) improves transfer speed over long distances but does not affect the per-prefix request rate limits.
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 Batch Operations to process the files.
Why it's wrong here
Batch Operations is for large-scale batch jobs, not for real-time watermarking.
- ✗
Increase the number of EC2 instances to process files in parallel.
Why it's wrong here
More instances would increase request rate, likely worsening the 503 errors.
- ✗
Enable S3 Transfer Acceleration on the bucket to improve throughput.
Why it's wrong here
Transfer Acceleration improves latency over distance, not request rate limits.
- ✓
Modify the application to add a random hash prefix to the object keys to distribute load across multiple prefixes.
Why this is correct
Spreading requests across many prefixes increases the aggregate request rate limit.
Visual reference
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.