MLS-C01 Data Engineering Practice Question
A team stores raw data in S3 and uses a Glue Data Catalog for metadata. They want to allow data scientists to query the data with Amazon Athena using their existing IAM roles. What is the MINIMUM set of permissions required?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many candidates assume Athena requires full S3 read/write access, but only read is needed for querying; write is only needed if the query outputs results to S3, which is not part of the minimum set for querying.
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
✓
Grant the IAM role permissions for Athena actions, Glue Data Catalog actions, and S3 read access.
Athena requires read access to S3 for querying data, permissions to the Glue Data Catalog for schema/metadata resolution, and Athena-specific actions to run queries. Write access to S3 is not required for querying, making B the minimum set.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Grant the IAM role permissions for Athena, Glue, and S3 (read and write).
Why it's wrong here
Write permissions are excessive; only read is needed for querying.
- ✓
Grant the IAM role permissions for Athena actions, Glue Data Catalog actions, and S3 read access.
Why this is correct
Athena requires GetTable, GetDatabase, etc. from Glue, and GetObject from S3.
- ✗
Grant the IAM role permissions for Athena and Amazon Redshift Spectrum.
Why it's wrong here
Redshift Spectrum is not used; only Athena and Glue are needed.
- ✗
Grant the IAM role permissions for Athena and Amazon Kinesis.
Why it's wrong here
Kinesis is not needed for querying static data in S3.
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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