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
Each shard supports 1000 records/sec write.
- ✗
The retention period of 24 hours is too short
Why it's wrong here
Retention period does not cause throttling.
- ✗
The stream uses KMS encryption, causing additional latency
Why it's wrong here
KMS encryption does not throttle writes.
- ✗
Enhanced monitoring is not enabled, causing performance issues
Why it's wrong here
Enhanced monitoring is for metrics, not throttling.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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