MLS-C01 Data Engineering Practice Question
A data engineer needs to transfer 50 TB of historical data from an on-premises HDFS cluster to Amazon S3. The company has a 1 Gbps internet connection. Which service would complete the transfer in the shortest time?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates underestimate the time required for large data transfers over a 1 Gbps link and overestimate the speed improvements of network acceleration services like S3 Transfer Acceleration or DataSync, which cannot overcome the fundamental bandwidth limitation.
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 Snowball
AWS Snowball is the correct choice because transferring 50 TB over a 1 Gbps internet connection would take approximately 5.5 days (50 TB × 1024 GB/TB × 8 bits/byte ÷ 1 Gbps ÷ 86400 seconds/day), assuming full utilization, which is unrealistic due to overhead and contention. Snowball provides a physical appliance that can be loaded with data locally and shipped to AWS, completing the transfer in a few days including shipping time, making it faster than any network-based method for this volume.
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 Snowball
Why this is correct
Snowball can transfer 50 TB physically in days.
- ✗
Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration
Why it's wrong here
Acceleration helps, but 50 TB over 1 Gbps takes days.
- ✗
AWS Direct Connect
Why it's wrong here
Direct Connect improves latency but still network-limited.
- ✗
AWS DataSync
Why it's wrong here
DataSync uses network, limited by 1 Gbps.
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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JA
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.