MLS-C01 Data Engineering Practice Question
A company wants to centralize logging from multiple AWS accounts and on-premises servers. The logs must be stored cost-effectively and be searchable. Which TWO services should be used? (Choose TWO.)
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers confuse Amazon CloudWatch Logs with a centralized log storage solution, but it is actually a real-time monitoring service with high storage costs, not a cost-effective long-term archive; similarly, Kinesis Data Streams is mistaken for a storage service when it is purely a streaming ingestion layer.
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 Athena
Amazon S3 (option E) provides a cost-effective, durable storage layer for centralized logs, while Amazon Athena (option C) enables serverless SQL-based searching directly on the log data stored in S3 without needing to load it into a separate database. Together, they allow you to store logs cheaply and query them on demand, meeting the requirements of cost-effectiveness and searchability.
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 CloudWatch Logs
Why it's wrong here
CloudWatch Logs is for real-time monitoring, not cost-effective long-term storage.
- ✗
Amazon Redshift
Why it's wrong here
Redshift is expensive for storing raw logs.
- ✓
Amazon Athena
Why this is correct
Athena can query logs directly on S3.
- ✗
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams
Why it's wrong here
Kinesis is for real-time streaming, not storage.
- ✓
Amazon S3
Why this is correct
S3 is low-cost storage for log archives.
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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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.