The answer is to use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) for the full load and ongoing replication. This is correct because DMS is purpose-built for continuous database migration, supporting both a one-time full load of your 2 TB MySQL database and Change Data Capture (CDC) for hourly incremental updates, all while efficiently handling a low-bandwidth 10 Mbps connection through its built-in throttling and compression features. On the AWS Certified Data Engineer Associate DEA-C01 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of when to choose a managed replication service over offline or streaming tools; a common trap is selecting Snowball Edge for the initial load, but that fails the requirement for ongoing hourly replication. Remember the memory tip: “DMS does both the dump and the drip”—it handles the initial dump (full load) and the continuous drip (CDC replication) to S3 or Redshift.
DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
This DEA-C01 practice question tests your understanding of data ingestion and transformation. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. 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 company needs to ingest data from an on-premises MySQL database into Amazon S3 for analytics. The database is 2 TB in size. The company has a low-bandwidth internet connection (10 Mbps). They need to perform an initial full load and then incremental updates every hour. Which approach should they use?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to perform the full load and ongoing replication.
Option B is correct because AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) supports full load and ongoing replication, and can be used with limited bandwidth. Option A is wrong because Snowball Edge is for offline transfer, not ongoing replication. Option C is wrong because Glue ETL is not optimized for continuous replication. Option D is wrong because Kinesis Data Firehose is for streaming data, not database replication.
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.
✗
Use Kinesis Data Firehose to stream data from MySQL to S3.
Why it's wrong here
Firehose cannot directly connect to MySQL.
✓
Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to perform the full load and ongoing replication.
Why this is correct
DMS supports full load and CDC with low bandwidth.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Use AWS Glue ETL jobs to extract data and load into S3.
Why it's wrong here
Glue ETL is not designed for continuous replication.
✗
Use AWS Snowball Edge to transfer the initial full load, then use AWS DataSync for incremental updates.
Why it's wrong here
Snowball Edge is for offline transfer, but DataSync is not suitable for database replication.
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 media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
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 Ingestion and Transformation — This question tests Data Ingestion and Transformation — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to perform the full load and ongoing replication. — Option B is correct because AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) supports full load and ongoing replication, and can be used with limited bandwidth. Option A is wrong because Snowball Edge is for offline transfer, not ongoing replication. Option C is wrong because Glue ETL is not optimized for continuous replication. Option D is wrong because Kinesis Data Firehose is for streaming data, not database replication.
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.
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 company needs to ingest data from a MySQL database into Amazon S3 in near real-time. The database is running on EC2. The data engineer wants to minimize the impact on the source database. Which service should be used?
easy
✓ A.AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) with ongoing replication
B.AWS Glue ETL job with a JDBC connection
C.Amazon RDS for MySQL with read replica
D.AWS Schema Conversion Tool (SCT)
Why A: AWS DMS with ongoing replication (change data capture) is the correct choice because it can continuously replicate changes from a MySQL source database to Amazon S3 with minimal performance impact. DMS uses a transactional log-based approach (MySQL binlog) to capture changes as they occur, avoiding heavy SELECT queries on the source. This enables near real-time ingestion without adding significant load to the production database.
Variation 2. A company needs to ingest data from a relational database into Amazon S3 for analytics. The database is an Amazon RDS MySQL instance. Which AWS service should be used for a one-time historical data load?
easy
✓ A.AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
B.AWS Glue ETL
C.Amazon Athena
D.Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose
Why A: Option C is correct because AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) can perform a one-time full load from RDS MySQL to S3. Option A is incorrect because Glue ETL can do it but DMS is specialized for databases. Option B is incorrect because Kinesis Data Firehose is for streaming, not database. Option D is incorrect because Athena queries data, not ingest.
Variation 3. A company needs to ingest data from an on-premises Oracle database into Amazon S3 on a daily basis. The data volume is about 100 GB per day. Which AWS service is BEST suited for this task?
easy
A.Use AWS DataSync to copy the database files to S3.
B.Use Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose with a database connector.
✓ C.Use AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) to replicate data to S3.
D.Use AWS Glue to extract data from Oracle and write to S3.
Why C: Option C is correct because AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) can continuously replicate data from Oracle to S3, and it supports full load and change data capture (CDC). Option A (AWS DataSync) is for file-based transfers, not database replication. Option B (Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose) is for streaming data, not database pull. Option D (AWS Glue) is for ETL but does not natively support continuous CDC from Oracle.
Variation 4. A company needs to ingest data from an on-premises SQL Server database into Amazon Redshift. The data volume is less than 1 TB and the network bandwidth is limited. Which AWS service should be used for the initial full load?
easy
A.AWS Snowball Edge
✓ B.AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
C.Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration
D.AWS Direct Connect
Why B: Option B is correct because AWS DMS is designed for migrating databases to AWS, including to Redshift. Option A (AWS Snowball) is for large data volumes (petabytes) and not efficient for <1 TB. Option C (Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration) speeds up uploads to S3 but not directly to Redshift. Option D (AWS Direct Connect) is a network connection, not a migration service.
Variation 5. A company needs to ingest data from multiple on-premises databases into Amazon S3 for analytics. The databases include Oracle, MySQL, and PostgreSQL. The data must be continuously replicated with minimal latency. Which AWS service should be used?
easy
✓ A.AWS Database Migration Service (AWS DMS)
B.Amazon Kinesis Data Streams
C.AWS Snowball
D.AWS Glue
Why A: Option B is correct because AWS DMS supports heterogeneous database migrations and continuous replication to S3. Option A is wrong because Glue is batch-oriented. Option C is wrong because Kinesis Data Streams is for streaming data, not database replication. Option D is wrong because Snowball is for large offline transfers.
Variation 6. A company needs to ingest data from an on-premises Oracle database into Amazon S3 for analytics. The data volume is about 1 TB initially, with daily incremental updates of about 10 GB. Which TWO services can be combined to achieve this with minimal custom code?
easy
A.AWS Glue
B.Amazon Kinesis Data Streams
C.Amazon Athena
✓ D.Amazon S3
✓ E.AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
Why D: Options A and D are correct because AWS DMS can perform full load and ongoing replication, and S3 is the target. Option B (Kinesis Data Streams) is for real-time streaming, not database migration. Option C (Glue) can be used but often requires more custom code than DMS. Option E (Athena) is a query service, not data movement.
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