DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
A media company uses Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose to ingest log data from web servers into Amazon S3. The data is then processed by AWS Glue jobs. The company wants to ensure that data is delivered to S3 within 5 minutes of ingestion. Currently, the Firehose delivery stream is configured with a buffer interval of 300 seconds and a buffer size of 5 MB. The log data arrives at a rate of 2 MB per second. The data engineer notices that some log files are delayed by up to 10 minutes. The company cannot change the buffer size due to downstream requirements. What should the data engineer do to meet the 5-minute delivery requirement?
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
✓
Decrease the buffer interval to 120 seconds.
Decreasing the buffer interval to 120 seconds ensures that data is delivered to S3 within 2 minutes, meeting the 5-minute requirement. The current buffer interval of 300 seconds (5 minutes) is the primary cause of delays up to 10 minutes. Option A is incorrect because increasing the buffer interval would increase delay. Option B is incorrect because increasing buffer size would also increase delay, as it takes longer to fill. Option C is incorrect because compression does not affect the buffer interval; data still waits up to 300 seconds.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increase the buffer interval to 600 seconds to reduce the number of delivery attempts.
Why it's wrong here
Increasing interval would increase delay, not reduce it.
- ✗
Increase the buffer size to 10 MB to ensure data is delivered in larger chunks.
Why it's wrong here
Larger buffer size may increase delay because it waits for more data.
- ✗
Enable GZIP compression on the Firehose stream to reduce data size.
Why it's wrong here
Compression does not affect buffer interval or delivery frequency.
- ✓
Decrease the buffer interval to 120 seconds.
Why this is correct
Lower interval triggers delivery more often, reducing latency.
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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JA
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.