- A
Use AWS Glue's job bookmark feature.
Why wrong: Job bookmarks track processed data, not memory.
- B
Increase the number of DPU (Data Processing Units) for the job.
More workers provide more memory.
- C
Use Amazon Athena instead of AWS Glue.
Why wrong: Athena is for ad-hoc queries, not ETL jobs.
- D
Use a columnar file format like Parquet.
Why wrong: Parquet reduces storage, not memory during processing.
Question 1,718 of 1,755
MLS-C01 Practice Question: Machine Learning Implementation and Operations
This MLS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of machine learning implementation and operations. The scenario asks you to isolate a root cause — eliminate options that address a different problem before choosing. 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 scientist is using AWS Glue to prepare training data. The job reads from an S3 bucket, performs transformations, and writes to another S3 bucket. The job is failing due to insufficient memory. Which solution should the data scientist use to fix this?
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
✓
Increase the number of DPU (Data Processing Units) for the job.
The job is failing due to insufficient memory, which is a resource constraint. Increasing the number of DPU (Data Processing Units) allocates more memory and compute capacity to the AWS Glue job, directly addressing the out-of-memory error. This is the standard approach to scale Glue ETL jobs when they hit memory limits.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
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 Glue's job bookmark feature.
Why it's wrong here
Job bookmarks track processed data, not memory.
- ✓
Increase the number of DPU (Data Processing Units) for the job.
Why this is correct
More workers provide more memory.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
Use Amazon Athena instead of AWS Glue.
Why it's wrong here
Athena is for ad-hoc queries, not ETL jobs.
- ✗
Use a columnar file format like Parquet.
Why it's wrong here
Parquet reduces storage, not memory during processing.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates confuse performance optimization techniques (like using columnar formats or job bookmarks) with resource scaling, assuming any 'best practice' will fix a memory error, when the direct solution is to increase compute/memory allocation via DPUs.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
AWS Glue allocates a fixed amount of memory per DPU (currently 4 vCPU and 16 GB of memory per DPU). By default, Glue jobs use 10 DPUs, but for memory-intensive transformations (e.g., large joins, aggregations, or handling wide datasets), increasing DPUs scales both memory and parallelism. However, note that Glue uses Apache Spark under the hood, and simply adding DPUs may not linearly reduce memory pressure if the bottleneck is data skew or inefficient shuffles; tuning Spark configurations (e.g., spark.sql.shuffle.partitions) is often needed alongside DPU scaling.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
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.
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 |
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this MLS-C01 question test?
Machine Learning Implementation and Operations — This question tests Machine Learning Implementation and Operations — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Increase the number of DPU (Data Processing Units) for the job. — The job is failing due to insufficient memory, which is a resource constraint. Increasing the number of DPU (Data Processing Units) allocates more memory and compute capacity to the AWS Glue job, directly addressing the out-of-memory error. This is the standard approach to scale Glue ETL jobs when they hit memory limits.
What should I do if I get this MLS-C01 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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