Quick Answer
The answer is AWS Glue Data Catalog and Amazon Athena. These two services work together to catalog and provide schema information for a data lake on AWS, with Glue Data Catalog acting as the central metadata repository that stores table definitions, partition structures, and schema details for data stored in S3, while Athena uses that same catalog as its schema store to enable serverless SQL queries directly against the data. On the AWS Certified Machine Learning Specialty MLS-C01 exam, this question tests your understanding of how metadata management underpins data lake architectures—a common trap is confusing a storage service like DynamoDB or RDS with a catalog, or mistaking Kinesis for a schema provider. Remember that Glue Data Catalog is the persistent schema registry, and Athena is the query engine that reads from it; think of the catalog as the library’s card catalog and Athena as the librarian who retrieves books based on those cards. A helpful memory tip: “Glue sticks the schema, Athena reads the tea leaves.”
This MLS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of data engineering. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A data engineering team is designing a data lake on AWS. They need to store raw data in S3 and allow multiple analytics services to query the data. Which TWO services can be used to catalog and provide schema information for the data?
AWS Glue Data Catalog
Glue Data Catalog stores metadata and schemas.
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams
Why wrong: Kinesis is for streaming data, not cataloging.
Amazon RDS
Why wrong: RDS is a relational database, not a catalog.
Amazon DynamoDB
Why wrong: DynamoDB is a NoSQL database, not a data catalog.
Amazon Athena
Athena uses Glue Data Catalog for schema management.
Answer choices
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
AWS Glue Data Catalog
Option B (AWS Glue Data Catalog) is a metadata catalog. Option D (Amazon Athena) uses Glue Data Catalog as its schema store. Option A (DynamoDB) is not a catalog; Option C (RDS) is a database; Option E (Kinesis) is streaming.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
AWS Glue Data Catalog
Why this is correct
Glue Data Catalog stores metadata and schemas.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams
Why it's wrong here
Kinesis is for streaming data, not cataloging.
Amazon RDS
Why it's wrong here
RDS is a relational database, not a catalog.
Amazon DynamoDB
Why it's wrong here
DynamoDB is a NoSQL database, not a data catalog.
Amazon Athena
Why this is correct
Athena uses Glue Data Catalog for schema management.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Many certification questions include familiar terms but test a specific constraint. Read the exact wording before choosing an answer that is generally true but wrong for this case.
Detailed technical explanation
This question should be treated as a scenario, not a definition check. Identify the problem, the constraint and the best action. Then compare each option against those facts.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
A media company stores terabytes of video archives that are accessed once a year for audit purposes. Moving these objects to a cold storage tier (Azure Archive, S3 Glacier, or Google Nearline) costs a fraction of hot storage. Questions like this test whether you understand storage tiers, access frequency tradeoffs, and retrieval latency requirements.
What to study next
Identify which MLS-C01 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
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FAQ
Data Engineering — This question tests Data Engineering — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
The correct answer is: AWS Glue Data Catalog — Option B (AWS Glue Data Catalog) is a metadata catalog. Option D (Amazon Athena) uses Glue Data Catalog as its schema store. Option A (DynamoDB) is not a catalog; Option C (RDS) is a database; Option E (Kinesis) is streaming.
Identify which MLS-C01 exam domain this question belongs to, then review the specific concept being tested. Practise related questions in that domain and focus on understanding why each wrong answer is tempting — not just why the correct answer is right.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jun 20, 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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