MLS-C01 Data Engineering Practice Question
A data engineer needs to transfer 50 TB of historical data from an on-premises Hadoop cluster to Amazon S3. The company has a 1 Gbps internet connection and wants to complete the transfer within 5 days. What is the MOST cost-effective and reliable solution?
⚠ Common exam trap
The trap here is that candidates underestimate the real-world throughput of a 1 Gbps link (which rarely exceeds 800 Mbps due to TCP overhead and congestion) and overestimate the speed of S3 Transfer Acceleration, assuming it can magically bypass bandwidth limits.
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 AWS Snowball Edge device to physically ship the data
AWS Snowball Edge is the most cost-effective and reliable solution because transferring 50 TB over a 1 Gbps internet connection would take approximately 5.5 days under ideal conditions (50 TB * 1024 GB/TB * 8 bits/byte / (1 Gbps * 86400 seconds/day) ≈ 4.74 days, but real-world overhead, congestion, and retransmissions push it beyond 5 days). Snowball Edge provides a physical appliance that can be shipped, avoiding network bandwidth limitations entirely, and is designed for large-scale data transfers where internet speeds are insufficient.
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 AWS Snowball Edge device to physically ship the data
Why this is correct
Snowball can transfer 50 TB in a few days, cost-effective for large data.
- ✗
Use S3 multipart upload over the internet
Why it's wrong here
Would take over 5 days at 1 Gbps and may have interruptions.
- ✗
Set up AWS Direct Connect and transfer over the dedicated line
Why it's wrong here
Direct Connect takes weeks to provision and is expensive for one-time transfer.
- ✗
Use S3 Transfer Acceleration to speed up the transfer
Why it's wrong here
Transfer Acceleration optimizes internet path but still limited by bandwidth.
Visual reference
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.