Quick Answer
The answer is Amazon Kinesis Data Streams and Kinesis Data Analytics. Kinesis Data Streams provides the low-latency ingestion required for streaming social media data, capturing records in seconds, while Kinesis Data Analytics performs real-time aggregation on that stream, enabling immediate calculations like counts or averages before the data lands in Amazon S3 for long-term storage. On the AWS Certified Data Engineer Associate DEA-C01 exam, this pairing tests your understanding of the difference between stream processing and batch processing—a common trap is choosing Kinesis Data Firehose, which introduces minutes of latency, or Amazon Glue ETL, which is batch-oriented. Remember the mnemonic “Streams for speed, Analytics for need”: Kinesis Data Streams handles the fast ingestion, and Kinesis Data Analytics handles the on-the-fly computations.
This DEA-C01 practice question tests your understanding of data ingestion and transformation. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. 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 is designing a data ingestion pipeline for streaming social media data. The data must be ingested with low latency (seconds) and stored in Amazon S3 for long-term analytics. The engineer also needs to perform real-time aggregations. Which TWO services should the engineer use? (Choose two.)
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose
Why wrong: Firehose has higher latency and is for delivery, not real-time processing.
AWS Glue ETL
Why wrong: Glue ETL is batch-oriented, not real-time.
Amazon S3
Why wrong: S3 is storage, not a stream processing service.
Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics
Performs real-time analytics on streaming data.
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams
Provides real-time data ingestion.
Answer choices
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 Analytics
Option A and D are correct. Kinesis Data Streams provides low-latency ingestion, and Kinesis Data Analytics performs real-time aggregations. Option B is wrong because Kinesis Data Firehose has higher latency (minutes). Option C is wrong because S3 is storage, not stream processing. Option E is wrong because Glue ETL is batch-oriented.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose
Why it's wrong here
Firehose has higher latency and is for delivery, not real-time processing.
AWS Glue ETL
Why it's wrong here
Glue ETL is batch-oriented, not real-time.
Amazon S3
Why it's wrong here
S3 is storage, not a stream processing service.
Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics
Why this is correct
Performs real-time analytics on streaming data.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams
Why this is correct
Provides real-time data ingestion.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
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
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.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
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
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
Data Ingestion and Transformation — This question tests Data Ingestion and Transformation — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics — Option A and D are correct. Kinesis Data Streams provides low-latency ingestion, and Kinesis Data Analytics performs real-time aggregations. Option B is wrong because Kinesis Data Firehose has higher latency (minutes). Option C is wrong because S3 is storage, not stream processing. Option E is wrong because Glue ETL is batch-oriented.
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.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 20, 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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