Question 1,186 of 1,672
MLS-C01 Data Engineering Practice Question
A data engineer needs to ingest streaming data from an on-premises Kafka cluster into Amazon S3 with minimal operational overhead. Which AWS service should be used to stream the data into S3 without managing servers?
⚠ Common exam trap
A common mix-up: candidates confuse Amazon MSK (a managed Kafka cluster) with a direct S3 ingestion service, but MSK still requires you to build and manage the pipeline to S3, whereas Kinesis Data Firehose is purpose-built for serverless streaming to destinations like S3.
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
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose is the correct choice because it is a fully managed service that can directly ingest streaming data from an on-premises Kafka cluster (via a Kinesis Data Firehose HTTP endpoint or a custom producer) and deliver it to Amazon S3 without requiring any server management. It handles scaling, buffering, and compression automatically, minimizing operational overhead.
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 Kinesis Data Streams
Why it's wrong here
Kinesis Data Streams requires a consumer application to process the data, adding operational overhead.
- ✗
AWS Glue
Why it's wrong here
AWS Glue is a serverless ETL service, not designed for real-time streaming ingestion.
- ✗
Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka (Amazon MSK)
Why it's wrong here
MSK is a managed Kafka cluster but still requires management of producers, consumers, and scaling.
- ✓
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose
Why this is correct
Kinesis Data Firehose can directly ingest streaming data and deliver to S3 without 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 |
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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.
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