MLS-C01 Data Engineering Practice Question
A company runs a critical ETL job using AWS Glue that writes to an Amazon Redshift cluster. The job occasionally fails due to insufficient disk space on the Redshift cluster. How can the company automate the process to prevent this failure?
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
✓
Use a CloudWatch alarm to trigger a Lambda function that resizes the cluster.
Using Amazon CloudWatch to monitor disk space and automatically resize the cluster is the best automated solution. Reserving nodes does not address space. Using RA3 nodes with managed storage is a good proactive step but does not automate resizing. The correct answer is to monitor and auto-resize.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✓
Use a CloudWatch alarm to trigger a Lambda function that resizes the cluster.
Why this is correct
This automates scaling based on disk usage.
- ✗
Use RA3 node types with managed storage.
Why it's wrong here
RA3 uses managed storage but doesn't automatically resize the cluster.
- ✗
Increase the number of slices in the Redshift cluster.
Why it's wrong here
Slices are part of nodes; doesn't increase total disk.
- ✗
Reserve additional nodes for the Redshift cluster.
Why it's wrong here
Reserved nodes don't automatically add space when needed.
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 |
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This MLS-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 MLS-C01 exam.