- A
Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration to speed up the transfer.
Why wrong: Transfer Acceleration optimizes internet transfers but is still limited by 100 Mbps.
- B
AWS Snowball Edge device to physically ship the data.
Snowball bypasses network limitations by shipping data physically.
- C
AWS Direct Connect to establish a dedicated network connection.
Why wrong: Direct Connect still relies on network bandwidth, which is limited.
- D
AWS Site-to-Site VPN to connect and copy data.
Why wrong: VPN is limited by internet bandwidth and not efficient for 50 TB.
Question 356 of 1,755
Large Data Transfer Over Slow Network with Snowball Edge
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 engineer needs to move 50 TB of historical data from an on-premises Hadoop cluster to Amazon S3. The network bandwidth is limited to 100 Mbps. Which AWS service should be used to transfer the data most efficiently?
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
✓
AWS Snowball Edge device to physically ship the data.
Given 50 TB of data and a 100 Mbps network link, the theoretical minimum transfer time over the network is over 46 days (50 TB * 8 / 100 Mbps ≈ 4,000,000 seconds ≈ 46.3 days), not accounting for protocol overhead, retransmissions, or contention. AWS Snowball Edge is a physical appliance that bypasses the network bottleneck entirely, allowing you to copy data locally and ship it to AWS, making it the most efficient option for this volume over a constrained link.
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 S3 Transfer Acceleration to speed up the transfer.
Why it's wrong here
Transfer Acceleration optimizes internet transfers but is still limited by 100 Mbps.
- ✓
AWS Snowball Edge device to physically ship the data.
Why this is correct
Snowball bypasses network limitations by shipping data physically.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- ✗
AWS Direct Connect to establish a dedicated network connection.
Why it's wrong here
Direct Connect still relies on network bandwidth, which is limited.
- ✗
AWS Site-to-Site VPN to connect and copy data.
Why it's wrong here
VPN is limited by internet bandwidth and not efficient for 50 TB.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often overestimate the impact of acceleration or dedicated connections on large data volumes over low-bandwidth links, failing to calculate that even with perfect efficiency, a 100 Mbps link cannot transfer 50 TB in a reasonable time frame, making physical shipping the only viable option.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Snowball Edge devices use a local network interface (e.g., 10 GbE) for high-speed data ingestion, then rely on physical shipping via carriers like FedEx to move the data to an AWS region, where it is automatically loaded into S3. The device supports up to 80 TB of usable storage per unit, so a single Snowball Edge can handle the 50 TB dataset. Under the hood, the device uses a modified version of the S3 API and can also run Lambda functions for edge processing, which is useful for pre-processing data before shipping.
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?
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: AWS Snowball Edge device to physically ship the data. — Given 50 TB of data and a 100 Mbps network link, the theoretical minimum transfer time over the network is over 46 days (50 TB * 8 / 100 Mbps ≈ 4,000,000 seconds ≈ 46.3 days), not accounting for protocol overhead, retransmissions, or contention. AWS Snowball Edge is a physical appliance that bypasses the network bottleneck entirely, allowing you to copy data locally and ship it to AWS, making it the most efficient option for this volume over a constrained link.
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
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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