DEA-C01 In-transit transformation Practice Question
Which TWO AWS services can be used to transform data in transit during ingestion? (Choose 2.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often mistakenly think that AWS Glue ETL is only for batch processing and cannot transform data in transit, but AWS Glue supports streaming ETL jobs that can transform data during ingestion, making it a valid choice for in-transit 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
✓
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose with Lambda transformation
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose can invoke an AWS Lambda function to transform streaming data in real time before delivering it to a destination, making it suitable for transforming data in transit during ingestion. AWS Glue ETL can be used for both batch and streaming transformations; specifically, AWS Glue supports streaming ETL jobs that can transform data in transit as it is ingested from sources like Amazon MSK or Kinesis Data Streams. Therefore, both services can transform data during ingestion, albeit with different use cases and latency characteristics.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration
Why it's wrong here
Transfer Acceleration only speeds uploads to S3 by routing through edge locations; it performs no transformation of the data. It tempts because it sits in the ingestion path and improves throughput, and would be correct when the requirement is faster transfer rather than in-flight transformation.
- ✓
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose with Lambda transformation
Why this is correct
Firehose supports invoking a Lambda function to transform each record in flight before delivery, satisfying the stem's in-transit transformation requirement. The transformation occurs during ingestion rather than after landing, so downstream consumers receive already-processed data.
- ✓
AWS Glue ETL
Why this is correct
AWS Glue ETL performs server-side transformation of streaming or batch data as it moves from source to target, satisfying the in-transit transformation requirement. Its Apache Spark-based engine applies mapping, filtering and enrichment during ingestion rather than after landing, so data is reshaped before it reaches the destination store.
- ✗
Amazon Athena
Why it's wrong here
Athena queries data already stored in S3, so it operates after ingestion rather than transforming records in transit. It tempts because SQL can reshape data, and would be correct for ad-hoc analysis or creating transformed tables from existing datasets, not for ingestion-time processing.
- ✗
AWS Data Pipeline
Why it's wrong here
AWS Data Pipeline orchestrates and schedules batch workflows, but it is not an in-transit transformation engine for streaming ingestion. It tempts because it moves and processes data between services, and would be correct for coordinating scheduled ETL jobs rather than transforming records as they are ingested.
Quick reference
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 1,321 original DEA-C01 practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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.