The answer is to increase the number of shards in the Kinesis data stream. This is correct because the WriteProvisionedThroughputExceeded metric directly signals that the combined write rate from your producers has surpassed the total write capacity of your existing shards, where each shard supports 1 MB/second or 1,000 records/second for writes. By increasing the shard count, you linearly scale that total write throughput, resolving the throttling at its root cause rather than applying a workaround. On the AWS Certified Data Engineer Associate DEA-C01 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of Kinesis shard-based capacity and the difference between scaling shards versus tuning consumers or retention. A common trap is to confuse read-side fixes (like enhancing consumer speed) with write-side capacity issues, or to assume retries alone solve the problem. Remember the mnemonic: “Throttled writes? Shards are the keys.”
DEA-C01 Data Operations and Support Practice Question
This DEA-C01 practice question tests your understanding of data operations and support. 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 engineer is monitoring an Amazon Kinesis Data Stream and notices that the 'WriteProvisionedThroughputExceeded' metric is frequently elevated. The stream has 5 shards and is used by multiple producers. What is the BEST action to resolve this issue?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "best"
Why it matters: Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
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 shards in the Kinesis data stream.
Option B is correct because WriteProvisionedThroughputExceeded indicates that the write rate exceeds the shards' capacity. Increasing the number of shards increases the total write capacity. Option A is incorrect because retries do not resolve the root cause of insufficient capacity. Option C is incorrect because reducing the retention period does not affect write throughput. Option D is incorrect because enhancing the consumer's processing speed does not affect write throttling.
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.
✗
Increase the consumer's processing speed to reduce lag.
Why it's wrong here
Consumer speed affects read throughput, not write throttling.
✓
Increase the number of shards in the Kinesis data stream.
Why this is correct
More shards provide higher write throughput.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "best" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Reduce the data retention period of the stream.
Why it's wrong here
Retention period does not affect write throughput.
✗
Implement exponential backoff and retries in the producer applications.
Why it's wrong here
Retries mitigate transient errors but do not increase capacity.
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 cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.
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 Operations and Support — This question tests Data Operations and Support — 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 shards in the Kinesis data stream. — Option B is correct because WriteProvisionedThroughputExceeded indicates that the write rate exceeds the shards' capacity. Increasing the number of shards increases the total write capacity. Option A is incorrect because retries do not resolve the root cause of insufficient capacity. Option C is incorrect because reducing the retention period does not affect write throughput. Option D is incorrect because enhancing the consumer's processing speed does not affect write throttling.
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.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "best". Signals that multiple options may be partially correct. Choose the option that most directly solves the exact problem described, not the one that sounds most complete.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. A data engineer is monitoring an Amazon Kinesis Data Stream used to ingest clickstream data. The engineer notices that the stream's 'WriteProvisionedThroughputExceeded' metric is frequently above zero. Which TWO actions could help mitigate this issue? (Choose TWO.)
easy
✓ A.Increase the number of shards in the stream.
B.Reduce the data retention period to free up capacity.
C.Decrease the number of shards to reduce overhead.
✓ D.Implement a random prefix for the partition key to distribute data evenly.
E.Enable enhanced fan-out on the stream.
Why A: Options A and D are correct. Increasing the number of shards increases write capacity. Implementing a random prefix for partition keys distributes writes more evenly across shards. Option B is wrong because decreasing shards reduces capacity. Option C is wrong because enabling enhanced fan-out increases read capacity, not write. Option E is wrong because reducing the retention period does not affect write throughput.
Variation 2. A data engineer is monitoring an Amazon Kinesis Data Stream with a shard count of 10. The stream receives 5 MB/s of write traffic and 10 MB/s of read traffic. The engineer notices that writes are throttled with ProvisionedThroughputExceededException errors. Which action should the engineer take to resolve the throttling?
easy
✓ A.Increase the shard count to 20.
B.Decrease the shard count to 5.
C.Enable enhanced fan-out on the stream.
D.Configure auto-scaling on the stream.
Why A: Option A is correct because each shard supports 1 MB/s write capacity. With 10 shards, total write capacity is 10 MB/s, but the stream receives 5 MB/s, so write capacity is sufficient. However, read capacity is 2 MB/s per shard (total 20 MB/s), and reads are 10 MB/s, so reads are fine. The throttling may be due to uneven partition key distribution. Increasing shards to 20 provides 20 MB/s write capacity, solving the issue. Option B is wrong because increasing shards reduces read capacity per shard. Option C is wrong because enabling enhanced fan-out increases read cost but does not affect write limits. Option D is wrong because Kinesis Data Streams does not auto-scale; you must manually update shard count.
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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.
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