AWS Glue Job S3 Script Permission Error — Troubleshooting IAM Role Access
This DEA-C01 practice question tests your understanding of data ingestion and transformation. 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.
Network Topology
A CloudFormation template defines an AWS Glue job. The job fails during execution with the error 'Unable to locate script: s3://scripts-bucket/etl-script.py'. The S3 bucket 'scripts-bucket' exists and the script file is present. What is the most likely cause?
Clue words in this question
Noticing these words before you look at the options changes how you read each choice.
Clue: "most likely"
Why it matters: Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
Network Topology
A
The script location path is incorrect; it should include the bucket's region.
Why wrong: S3 paths do not include region.
B
The IAM role for the Glue job does not have s3:GetObject permission on the scripts bucket.
Glue needs to read the script from S3.
C
The Glue job requires Python version 2, but the script uses Python 3 syntax.
Why wrong: PythonVersion is set to 3, so it's compatible.
D
The S3 bucket is in a different AWS region than the Glue job.
Why wrong: Cross-region access is possible; not the most likely cause.
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
The IAM role for the Glue job does not have s3:GetObject permission on the scripts bucket.
The Glue job fails to locate the script because the IAM role assigned to the job lacks the s3:GetObject permission on the scripts-bucket. Even though the bucket and object exist, AWS Glue requires the execution role to have explicit read access to the S3 object to download and execute the script. Without this permission, the job cannot retrieve the file, resulting in the 'Unable to locate script' error.
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.
✗
The script location path is incorrect; it should include the bucket's region.
Why it's wrong here
S3 paths do not include region.
✓
The IAM role for the Glue job does not have s3:GetObject permission on the scripts bucket.
Why this is correct
Glue needs to read the script from S3.
Clue confirmation
The clue word "most likely" in the question point toward this answer.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
The Glue job requires Python version 2, but the script uses Python 3 syntax.
Why it's wrong here
PythonVersion is set to 3, so it's compatible.
✗
The S3 bucket is in a different AWS region than the Glue job.
Why it's wrong here
Cross-region access is possible; not the most likely cause.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates assume the error is about the script path or region mismatch, but the real cause is almost always missing IAM permissions for the Glue execution role to read the script from S3.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
AWS Glue jobs execute in a serverless Spark environment that downloads the ETL script from S3 to the local ephemeral storage of the worker nodes. The IAM role attached to the Glue job must have an IAM policy with s3:GetObject (and optionally s3:GetObjectVersion) on the script object. If the role only has s3:ListBucket but not s3:GetObject, the job can see the file but cannot read its contents, leading to this exact error. This is a common misconfiguration because S3 permissions are granular and often overlooked.
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.
TExam Day Tips
→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.
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
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
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: The IAM role for the Glue job does not have s3:GetObject permission on the scripts bucket. — The Glue job fails to locate the script because the IAM role assigned to the job lacks the s3:GetObject permission on the scripts-bucket. Even though the bucket and object exist, AWS Glue requires the execution role to have explicit read access to the S3 object to download and execute the script. Without this permission, the job cannot retrieve the file, resulting in the 'Unable to locate script' error.
What should I do if I get this DEA-C01 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
Are there clue words in this question I should notice?
Yes — watch for: "most likely". Probability qualifier — the question wants the most probable cause or outcome, not a guaranteed one. Eliminate low-probability options.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
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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. Refer to the exhibit. A data engineer deploys this CloudFormation template to create an AWS Glue job. The job fails on the first run with an error: 'AccessDeniedException: User: arn:aws:sts::123456789012:assumed-role/GlueServiceRole/... is not authorized to perform: s3:GetObject on resource: s3://my-bucket/scripts/etl.py'. What is the most likely cause?
medium
A.The ExecutionProperty MaxConcurrentRuns is set to 1, preventing the job from running.
✓ B.The IAM role associated with the Glue job does not have an S3 GetObject permission for the script location.
C.The MaxRetries is set to 0, so the job does not retry on failure.
D.The script location is incorrectly specified; it should be an S3 URI with bucket and key.
Why B: The error message indicates that the IAM role 'GlueServiceRole' assumed by the AWS Glue job does not have the s3:GetObject permission for the script object at s3://my-bucket/scripts/etl.py. AWS Glue requires the execution role to have read access to the script location specified in the 'ScriptLocation' parameter. Without this permission, the job fails immediately on startup because it cannot download and execute the ETL script.
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Question Discussion
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