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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 media company ingests large video files from partners via AWS Transfer Family (SFTP) into an S3 bucket. Each file is typically 2-5 GB. Once uploaded, an AWS Lambda function is triggered to transcode the video using Amazon Elastic Transcoder. The Lambda function reads the file from S3, submits a transcoding job to Elastic Transcoder, and writes the output back to a different S3 bucket. Recently, the Lambda function has been failing intermittently with timeouts, and the company reports that some files are not being transcoded. The CloudWatch logs show that the Lambda function is timing out after 15 minutes. The average transcoding job takes about 10 minutes to complete. The data engineer needs to fix the issue without changing the architecture drastically. What should the data engineer do?

A
Increase the Lambda function's reserved concurrency to allow multiple invocations in parallel.
Why wrong: Concurrency does not fix timeout issues.
B
Increase the Lambda function timeout to 20 minutes to accommodate longer transcoding jobs.
Why wrong: This does not address the root cause of waiting for the job.
C
Modify the Lambda function to submit the transcoding job asynchronously and exit, using an SNS topic to trigger a second Lambda function when the job completes.
Decoupling submission from completion avoids timeout.
D
Replace AWS Transfer Family with AWS Database Migration Service to handle file transfers more efficiently.
Why wrong: DMS is not suitable for file transfer.

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

✓

Modify the Lambda function to submit the transcoding job asynchronously and exit, using an SNS topic to trigger a second Lambda function when the job completes.

The Lambda function is timing out because it waits synchronously for the Elastic Transcoder job to complete, which can exceed the 15-minute Lambda timeout. The correct fix is to decouple the transcoding submission from the waiting: modify the Lambda function to submit the job asynchronously and exit immediately, then use an SNS topic or CloudWatch Events to trigger a second Lambda function when the job completes. This avoids the timeout. Option A (increasing reserved concurrency) does not address the root cause; timeouts occur per invocation, not due to lack of concurrency. Option B (increasing timeout to 20 minutes) might work but is not ideal because jobs can vary and still exceed the new timeout; the better pattern is asynchronous processing. Option D (replacing Transfer Family with DMS) is incorrect because DMS is for database migration, not file transfer and transcoding.

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.

✗
Increase the Lambda function's reserved concurrency to allow multiple invocations in parallel.
Why it's wrong here
Concurrency does not fix timeout issues.
✗
Increase the Lambda function timeout to 20 minutes to accommodate longer transcoding jobs.
Why it's wrong here
This does not address the root cause of waiting for the job.
✓
Modify the Lambda function to submit the transcoding job asynchronously and exit, using an SNS topic to trigger a second Lambda function when the job completes.
Why this is correct
Decoupling submission from completion avoids timeout.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Replace AWS Transfer Family with AWS Database Migration Service to handle file transfers more efficiently.
Why it's wrong here
DMS is not suitable for file transfer.

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 startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.

Visual reference

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 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.

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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: Modify the Lambda function to submit the transcoding job asynchronously and exit, using an SNS topic to trigger a second Lambda function when the job completes. — The Lambda function is timing out because it waits synchronously for the Elastic Transcoder job to complete, which can exceed the 15-minute Lambda timeout. The correct fix is to decouple the transcoding submission from the waiting: modify the Lambda function to submit the job asynchronously and exit immediately, then use an SNS topic or CloudWatch Events to trigger a second Lambda function when the job completes. This avoids the timeout. Option A (increasing reserved concurrency) does not address the root cause; timeouts occur per invocation, not due to lack of concurrency. Option B (increasing timeout to 20 minutes) might work but is not ideal because jobs can vary and still exceed the new timeout; the better pattern is asynchronous processing. Option D (replacing Transfer Family with DMS) is incorrect because DMS is for database migration, not file transfer and transcoding.

What should I do if I get this DEA-C01 question wrong?

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.