- A
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose
Why wrong: Firehose delivers data to destinations, not real-time analytics.
- B
AWS Lambda
Why wrong: Lambda can process but not ideal for continuous real-time analytics.
- C
Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS)
Why wrong: SQS is for decoupling, not real-time streaming.
- D
Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics
Provides real-time analytics to detect trending topics.
- E
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams
Ingests high-throughput streaming data.
MLS-C01 Data Engineering Practice Question
This MLS-C01 practice question tests your understanding of data engineering. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. 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 company is designing a data pipeline that ingests streaming data from social media feeds. The data must be processed in real-time to detect trending topics, and results must be stored in Amazon DynamoDB for low-latency access. Which services should the company use? (Choose TWO.)
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
Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics
Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics (D) is correct because it provides real-time SQL-based processing of streaming data, enabling the detection of trending topics from social media feeds without requiring custom code. It directly analyzes data from Kinesis Data Streams and can output results to DynamoDB via a Lambda function or Firehose, meeting the low-latency storage requirement.
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.
- ✗
Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose
Why it's wrong here
Firehose delivers data to destinations, not real-time analytics.
- ✗
AWS Lambda
Why it's wrong here
Lambda can process but not ideal for continuous real-time analytics.
- ✗
Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS)
Why it's wrong here
SQS is for decoupling, not real-time streaming.
- ✓
Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics
Why this is correct
Provides real-time analytics to detect trending topics.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✓
Amazon Kinesis Data Streams
Why this is correct
Ingests high-throughput streaming data.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Kinesis Data Firehose (a delivery service) with Kinesis Data Analytics (a real-time processing service), or assume Lambda alone can handle streaming analytics, when in fact Kinesis Data Analytics is the only option that provides built-in SQL-based stream processing for real-time trend detection.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Kinesis Data Analytics uses an internal SQL engine that continuously queries data in motion, applying windowed aggregations (e.g., sliding windows) to detect trends like frequency spikes. Under the hood, it reads from Kinesis Data Streams shards, processes records in-memory, and can write results to a destination stream or directly to DynamoDB via a Lambda consumer, ensuring sub-second latency for trending topic updates.
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
Cloud Service Model Comparison
| Model | You Manage | Provider Manages | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|
| IaaS | OS, runtime, apps, data | Hardware, hypervisor, networking | EC2, Azure VMs, GCP Compute Engine |
| PaaS | Apps and data | OS, runtime, middleware, hardware | Elastic Beanstalk, Azure App Service |
| SaaS | Data and settings only | Everything else | Microsoft 365, Salesforce, Workday |
| FaaS / Serverless | Function code only | Infra, scaling, runtime | Lambda, Azure Functions, Cloud Run |
| CaaS | Containers and apps | Kubernetes, OS, hardware | EKS, AKS, GKE |
What to study next
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FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this MLS-C01 question test?
Data Engineering — This question tests Data Engineering — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics — Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics (D) is correct because it provides real-time SQL-based processing of streaming data, enabling the detection of trending topics from social media feeds without requiring custom code. It directly analyzes data from Kinesis Data Streams and can output results to DynamoDB via a Lambda function or Firehose, meeting the low-latency storage requirement.
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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Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
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Last reviewed: Jul 4, 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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