DEA-C01 Data Ingestion and Transformation Practice Question
Network Topology
Refer to the exhibit. A data engineer runs this CLI command on an S3 bucket. The data is ingested from multiple sources. Which AWS service would be best to process these files in a single batch transformation?
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
✓
AWS Glue
AWS Glue is designed for batch ETL processing, capable of handling multiple files of varying sizes in a single transformation job. Option A is wrong because Lambda has limitations on execution time (15 minutes) and memory (10 GB), making it unsuitable for large-scale batch transforms. Option B is wrong because Kinesis Data Analytics is for real-time stream processing, not batch. Option C is wrong because Athena is an interactive query service for ad-hoc analysis of data in S3, not for batch transformations.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
AWS Lambda
Why it's wrong here
Lambda caps execution at 15 minutes and memory, so a single batch transformation across many source files exceeds it. Lambda is tempting for short event-driven file processing, and would be correct for lightweight per-object transforms triggered on upload rather than one consolidated job.
- ✗
Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics
Why it's wrong here
Kinesis Data Analytics runs continuous SQL over streaming data, not a single batch transformation of files already landed in S3. It is tempting because it processes data as it arrives, and would be correct for real-time aggregation from a stream rather than one-off batch processing.
- ✗
Amazon Athena
Why it's wrong here
Athena queries data in place with SQL and returns results; it does not perform batch transformation jobs that write new output datasets. It is the right pick for ad-hoc interactive querying over S3, not for scheduled single-batch transformation of ingested files.
- ✓
AWS Glue
Why this is correct
AWS Glue is a serverless, managed extract-transform-load service that handles schema discovery via crawlers and runs distributed Spark jobs, so it can transform all files from multiple sources in one batch job without provisioning or managing servers.
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 |
Go deeper
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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.