The answer is to partition data by date and other high-cardinality columns, use the Parquet columnar format, and apply compression. These three practices directly address data lake optimization for Athena and Glue by minimizing the amount of data scanned per query, reducing storage footprint, and improving I/O efficiency. Partitioning in S3 acts as a coarse filter, allowing Athena to skip irrelevant files, while Parquet’s columnar storage reads only needed columns, and compression like Snappy or Gzip reduces both storage costs and data transfer. On the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional SAP-C02 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of cost-performance trade-offs in serverless analytics; a common trap is choosing JSON (row-based, no compression) or creating many small files, which increases overhead and negates partitioning benefits. Remember the mnemonic “P-P-C” for Partition, Parquet, Compress—if you see JSON or tiny files in an answer, eliminate it immediately.
SAP-C02 Design for New Solutions Practice Question
This SAP-C02 practice question tests your understanding of design for new solutions. 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 company is designing a new data lake on AWS. The data lake will store raw data from various sources in Amazon S3. The data will be processed using AWS Glue ETL jobs and queried using Amazon Athena. To optimize costs and performance, which three practices should the solutions architect implement?
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Compress data using Snappy or Gzip compression.
Partitioning data in S3 reduces the amount of data scanned by Athena. Using columnar formats like Parquet improves query performance and reduces scan costs. Compressing data reduces storage costs and I/O. Option A, C, and E are correct. Option B is wrong because JSON is not columnar. Option D is wrong because using many small files increases overhead.
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.
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Use columnar storage formats such as Parquet or ORC.
Why this is correct
Columnar formats reduce scan and improve compression.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Store data in many small files to improve parallel processing.
Why it's wrong here
Many small files increase overhead; use larger files.
✓
Partition the data by date and other high-cardinality columns.
Why this is correct
Partition pruning reduces data scanned.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
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
How to think about this question
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.
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.
Use explanations to understand the rule behind the answer.
TExam Day Tips
→Underline the problem statement mentally.
→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 startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which SAP-C02 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.
Design for New Solutions — This question tests Design for New Solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Compress data using Snappy or Gzip compression. — Partitioning data in S3 reduces the amount of data scanned by Athena. Using columnar formats like Parquet improves query performance and reduces scan costs. Compressing data reduces storage costs and I/O. Option A, C, and E are correct. Option B is wrong because JSON is not columnar. Option D is wrong because using many small files increases overhead.
What should I do if I get this SAP-C02 question wrong?
Identify which SAP-C02 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.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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This SAP-C02 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 SAP-C02 exam.
Question Discussion
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