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Data Ingestion and Transformation →mediumMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question

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.

A company runs a nightly ETL job using AWS Glue. The job reads data from a JDBC connection to an on-premises MySQL database. The job fails with an error indicating that the connection pool is exhausted. What is the most likely cause and solution?

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.

A
The database is not reachable due to network issues. Check VPC and security groups.
Why wrong: Network issues cause timeouts, not pool exhaustion.
B
The Glue job is hitting the AWS Glue connection pool limit. Increase the Glue connection pool size.
Why wrong: Glue does not have a connection pool limit.
C
The database credentials are expired. Rotate the password in AWS Secrets Manager.
Why wrong: Expired credentials cause authentication errors.
D
The Glue job is using too many executors, exhausting the database connections. Reduce the number of DPUs or increase the database max connections.
Glue can open multiple connections; reducing parallelism or scaling database helps.

Full breakdown with real-world context →

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

✓

The Glue job is using too many executors, exhausting the database connections. Reduce the number of DPUs or increase the database max connections.

Option D is correct because AWS Glue jobs distribute work across multiple executors, each of which opens its own JDBC connection to the source database. When the number of executors (controlled by DPUs) exceeds the database's configured maximum connections, the database connection pool is exhausted, causing the error. Reducing the number of DPUs or increasing the database's max_connections setting resolves the issue.

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 database is not reachable due to network issues. Check VPC and security groups.
Why it's wrong here
Network issues cause timeouts, not pool exhaustion.
✗
The Glue job is hitting the AWS Glue connection pool limit. Increase the Glue connection pool size.
Why it's wrong here
Glue does not have a connection pool limit.
✗
The database credentials are expired. Rotate the password in AWS Secrets Manager.
Why it's wrong here
Expired credentials cause authentication errors.
✓
The Glue job is using too many executors, exhausting the database connections. Reduce the number of DPUs or increase the database max connections.
Why this is correct
Glue can open multiple connections; reducing parallelism or scaling database helps.
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.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

The trap here is that candidates confuse a database-side connection pool exhaustion with an AWS Glue service limit or network issue, leading them to incorrectly choose options about Glue connection pools or VPC configurations.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

Under the hood, each Glue executor opens a separate JDBC connection to the source database, and the number of executors is determined by the WorkerType and NumberOfWorkers parameters. For example, a G.1X worker uses 1 DPU and can spawn multiple tasks, each potentially opening a connection. If the MySQL database has a default max_connections of 151 and the Glue job uses 20 executors with 10 connections each, the pool is quickly exhausted. Real-world scenarios often involve large datasets where increasing parallelism inadvertently overwhelms the source database.

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 healthcare organisation deploys an application with a public-facing web tier and a private database tier. The database subnet has no public IP and only accepts connections from the web tier's security group. Questions like this test whether you can design cloud network isolation using VNets/VPCs, subnets, and security group rules.

Visual reference

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.

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FAQ

Questions learners often ask

What does this DEA-C01 question test?

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 Glue job is using too many executors, exhausting the database connections. Reduce the number of DPUs or increase the database max connections. — Option D is correct because AWS Glue jobs distribute work across multiple executors, each of which opens its own JDBC connection to the source database. When the number of executors (controlled by DPUs) exceeds the database's configured maximum connections, the database connection pool is exhausted, causing the error. Reducing the number of DPUs or increasing the database's max_connections setting resolves the issue.

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.

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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.