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Data Ingestion and Transformation →hardMultiple ChoiceObjective-mapped

DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question

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 company uses Kinesis Data Streams to ingest clickstream data. They notice that the data processing latency increases as the number of shards grows. 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
Reduce the number of shards or increase the number of consumers.
Balancing shards and consumers ensures each shard is processed, reducing latency.
B
Increase the Kinesis Producer Library (KPL) batch size.
Why wrong: Batch size affects producer, not consumer processing latency.
C
Use enhanced fan-out to allow multiple consumers per shard.
Why wrong: Enhanced fan-out is for multiple consumers, but the issue is single consumer with many shards.
D
Increase the number of shards to handle more data.
Why wrong: More shards with the same number of consumers leads to more idle shards and increased latency.

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

✓

Reduce the number of shards or increase the number of consumers.

As the number of shards increases, the total throughput of the stream increases, but each shard has a fixed limit of 5 read transactions per second. If the number of consumers remains constant, each consumer must poll more shards sequentially, increasing the per-record processing latency. Reducing the number of shards or adding more consumers distributes the polling load, reducing the time each consumer spends waiting for shard-level throttling.

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.

✓
Reduce the number of shards or increase the number of consumers.
Why this is correct
Balancing shards and consumers ensures each shard is processed, reducing latency.
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.
✗
Increase the Kinesis Producer Library (KPL) batch size.
Why it's wrong here
Batch size affects producer, not consumer processing latency.
✗
Use enhanced fan-out to allow multiple consumers per shard.
Why it's wrong here
Enhanced fan-out is for multiple consumers, but the issue is single consumer with many shards.
✗
Increase the number of shards to handle more data.
Why it's wrong here
More shards with the same number of consumers leads to more idle shards and increased latency.

Common exam traps

Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword

The trap here is that candidates often assume more shards always improve performance, but the DEA-C01 exam tests the understanding that read-side latency scales inversely with the number of consumers relative to shards, not with shard count alone.

Detailed technical explanation

How to think about this question

Kinesis Data Streams enforces a shard-level read quota of 5 transactions per second (or 2 MB/second total). When a single consumer uses the Kinesis Client Library (KCL), it creates one record processor per shard, but the consumer application must still poll each shard in sequence. With many shards, the consumer spends more time in the polling loop, and if the processing time per record is non-trivial, the overall latency compounds. A common real-world mitigation is to run multiple KCL workers (consumers) in parallel, each handling a subset of shards, or to use AWS Lambda with a larger number of concurrent executions.

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 cloud solutions architect for a retail company is evaluating services for a new workload. The correct answer here reflects best practice for the specific scenario described — not a general cloud recommendation. Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option. Cloud exam questions reward reading the constraint carefully: the same technology can be right or wrong depending on the use case.

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: Reduce the number of shards or increase the number of consumers. — As the number of shards increases, the total throughput of the stream increases, but each shard has a fixed limit of 5 read transactions per second. If the number of consumers remains constant, each consumer must poll more shards sequentially, increasing the per-record processing latency. Reducing the number of shards or adding more consumers distributes the polling load, reducing the time each consumer spends waiting for shard-level throttling.

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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