MLS-C01 Data Engineering Practice Question
A data engineer is tasked with building a data pipeline that moves data from an on-premises database to Amazon S3 for analytics. The database is a MySQL instance that is 2 TB in size. The company has a 1 Gbps dedicated network connection to AWS (AWS Direct Connect). The data must be transferred once daily. The engineer needs to choose the most efficient and reliable service for this task. Which service should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse AWS DataSync (a file-transfer service) with a database migration tool, overlooking that DMS is the only option that natively supports extracting data from a relational database like MySQL and writing it to Amazon S3 in a structured format.
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 Database Migration Service (DMS)
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS) is the correct choice because it is purpose-built for migrating databases to AWS, supporting continuous replication and one-time migrations from MySQL to Amazon S3. It can handle the 2 TB dataset efficiently over a 1 Gbps Direct Connect link by using change data capture (CDC) for ongoing replication and parallel tasks for throughput, ensuring reliability with built-in monitoring and restart capabilities.
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 DataSync
Why it's wrong here
DataSync is for file-level transfers, not database migrations.
- ✓
AWS Database Migration Service (DMS)
Why this is correct
DMS is designed for database migrations and supports S3 as a target.
- ✗
AWS Glue
Why it's wrong here
Glue is for ETL, not direct database migration to S3.
- ✗
Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration
Why it's wrong here
Transfer Acceleration speeds up uploads to S3 but does not handle database extraction.
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.