DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
An e-commerce company ingests clickstream data from their website into Amazon S3. The data is in JSON format, and each file is about 10 MB. They need to transform the data into a columnar format for analytics and load it into Amazon Redshift nightly. The transformation should be cost-effective and require minimal operational overhead. Which approach meets these requirements?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently choose Amazon EMR or Lambda because they are familiar with Spark or serverless functions, but they overlook the operational overhead of EMR and the execution limits of Lambda for batch workloads, while Glue provides a balanced, managed solution for this specific use case.
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 AWS Glue ETL job to convert to Parquet and load into Redshift.
AWS Glue ETL is the correct choice because it is a serverless, managed service that can efficiently convert JSON to Parquet (a columnar format optimized for Redshift) and load the data into Redshift with minimal operational overhead. The nightly batch processing of 10 MB files is well-suited for Glue's pay-per-use pricing, making it cost-effective without requiring infrastructure management.
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 AWS Glue ETL job to convert to Parquet and load into Redshift.
Why this is correct
AWS Glue ETL jobs convert JSON to Parquet on serverless Spark infrastructure, eliminating cluster provisioning and satisfying the minimal-operational-overhead constraint. Parquet's columnar layout and compression reduce Redshift storage and scan costs, meeting the cost-effectiveness requirement for the nightly 10 MB file transformations.
- ✗
Use Amazon Redshift COPY command to load JSON directly.
Why it's wrong here
The COPY command loads JSON into Redshift but does not convert it to a columnar format on S3, and JSON COPY needs a JSONPaths file, so the columnar transformation requirement is unmet. COPY suits bulk-loading already-prepared files directly into Redshift tables.
- ✗
Use Amazon EMR with Spark to transform and load data.
Why it's wrong here
Amazon EMR with Spark requires provisioning, tuning and managing a cluster, adding operational overhead the scenario explicitly minimises. EMR suits large-scale or custom transformations across big datasets, whereas small 10 MB JSON files converted nightly fit a serverless, managed ETL service.
- ✗
Use AWS Lambda to transform each file and write to Redshift.
Why it's wrong here
AWS Lambda transforming each 10 MB file adds per-file invocation management, concurrency tuning and Redshift write handling, raising operational overhead. Lambda suits event-driven, short-lived processing, not scheduled bulk ETL where a managed transformation service handles conversion and loading.
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 |
Go deeper
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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.