MLS-C01 Data Engineering Practice Question
Network Topology
Refer to the exhibit. A data engineer examines the output of 'aws glue get-job-run' for a failed job. The job run state is FAILED, but ErrorMessage is empty. The job ran for 3600 seconds (1 hour) before failing. What is the MOST likely cause of the failure?
⚠ Common exam trap
AWS Glue jobs failing due to resource exhaustion (memory/DPU) will show a FAILED state with an empty ErrorMessage and run until the timeout, unlike permission or syntax errors which produce immediate, descriptive failures.
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
✓
The job ran out of memory due to insufficient DPU allocation.
The job ran for 3600 seconds (the default Glue job timeout) before failing with a FAILED state and an empty ErrorMessage. This pattern is characteristic of an out-of-memory (OOM) error in AWS Glue, which occurs when the allocated DPUs (Data Processing Units) are insufficient for the data volume or transformation complexity. Glue kills the job at the timeout boundary without a detailed error message because the JVM or Python process is killed by the OS (OOM killer), not by a Glue service exception.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
The JDBC connection to the source database timed out.
Why it's wrong here
Timeouts usually produce error messages.
- ✗
The IAM role does not have sufficient permissions to access S3.
Why it's wrong here
Permissions errors would appear in ErrorMessage.
- ✓
The job ran out of memory due to insufficient DPU allocation.
Why this is correct
Out-of-memory errors may not always produce a detailed error message in the job run output.
- ✗
The Python script has a syntax error.
Why it's wrong here
Syntax errors would be reported in logs.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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