DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
Network Topology
Refer to the exhibit. A data engineer is using a Kinesis Data Stream with one shard. The application writes 2000 records per second, each 1 KB. The put record calls are frequently throttled. What is the most likely cause?
⚠ Common exam trap
The DEA-C01 exam often tests the misconception that throttling is caused by encryption latency or monitoring settings, but the real trap is forgetting that each shard has a hard limit of 1,000 records per second, regardless of other configurations.
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 stream has only one shard, which limits writes to 1000 records per second
A Kinesis Data Stream shard has a write throughput limit of 1,000 records per second (or 1 MB per second). Since the application is writing 2,000 records per second (each 1 KB) to a single shard, it exceeds the shard's record-per-second quota, causing the PutRecord calls to be throttled. The solution is to increase the number of shards to at least two to distribute the load.
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 stream has only one shard, which limits writes to 1000 records per second
Why this is correct
A single shard caps writes at 1,000 records per second and 1 MB per second. The application attempts 2,000 records per second (about 2 MB per second), exceeding both limits, so Kinesis throttles the put calls. Adding shards raises the ingest capacity to match the required throughput.
- ✗
The retention period of 24 hours is too short
Why it's wrong here
Throttling arises from exceeding the shard's 1 MB/s ingest limit (2000 × 1 KB = 2 MB/s), not from retention. Retention governs how long stored records remain replayable, so extending it would not reduce PutRecord throttling; it matters only when consumers must re-read older data.
- ✗
The stream uses KMS encryption, causing additional latency
Why it's wrong here
KMS encryption adds per-record latency but does not itself trigger throttling; the limit is the shard's 1 MB/s ingest, and 2000 × 1 KB equals 2 MB/s. KMS is tempting because encryption overhead is a real Kinesis consideration, yet throttling reflects exceeded shard capacity, not cryptographic processing.
- ✗
Enhanced monitoring is not enabled, causing performance issues
Why it's wrong here
Enhanced monitoring only changes metric granularity; it neither raises the shard's 1 MB/s ingest ceiling nor prevents throttling. It is tempting because monitoring is often cited when diagnosing throughput problems, but the stream is already exceeding the single shard's capacity at 2 MB/s.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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