- A
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams
Kinesis Data Streams ingests and stores streaming data in shards for real-time processing.
- B
Amazon SQS
Why wrong: SQS is a message queue service, not designed for high-throughput streaming ingestion.
- C
Amazon DynamoDB Streams
Why wrong: DynamoDB Streams captures changes to DynamoDB tables, not general streaming data.
- D
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose
Kinesis Data Firehose delivers streaming data to S3 with automatic buffering, compression, and retry.
- E
Amazon RDS
Why wrong: RDS is a relational database, not a streaming ingestion service.
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 data engineer needs to ingest streaming data from an e-commerce application into Amazon S3 for near-real-time analytics. The solution must handle variable throughput and allow reprocessing of failed records. Which TWO AWS services should the engineer use? (Choose two.)
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
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams is correct because it provides a durable, scalable, real-time data ingestion layer that can handle variable throughput by sharding, and it retains data for up to 365 days, enabling reprocessing of failed records by replaying from a specific sequence number or timestamp.
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.
- ✓
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams
Why this is correct
Kinesis Data Streams ingests and stores streaming data in shards for real-time processing.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Amazon SQS
Why it's wrong here
SQS is a message queue service, not designed for high-throughput streaming ingestion.
- ✗
Amazon DynamoDB Streams
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB Streams captures changes to DynamoDB tables, not general streaming data.
- ✓
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose
Why this is correct
Kinesis Data Firehose delivers streaming data to S3 with automatic buffering, compression, and retry.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Amazon RDS
Why it's wrong here
RDS is a relational database, not a streaming ingestion service.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Amazon SQS with a streaming service, but SQS is a pull-based queue with no replay capability, whereas Kinesis Data Streams provides the persistent, replayable stream needed for reprocessing failed records.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Kinesis Data Streams uses shards to scale throughput, with each shard supporting 1 MB/s write and 2 MB/s read, and data is stored in the stream for a configurable retention period (default 24 hours, up to 365 days). Kinesis Data Firehose can read from a Kinesis Data Streams source, buffer data, and write it to S3 in near-real-time (typically 60 seconds or 1 MB buffer), while also supporting data transformation via Lambda and automatic retry on write failures, making it ideal for the described use case.
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.
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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: Amazon Kinesis Data Streams — Amazon Kinesis Data Streams is correct because it provides a durable, scalable, real-time data ingestion layer that can handle variable throughput by sharding, and it retains data for up to 365 days, enabling reprocessing of failed records by replaying from a specific sequence number or timestamp.
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.
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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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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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