Common Challenges When Acquiring Data from External APIs
Which THREE are challenges in acquiring data from external sources? (Select three.)
⚠ Common exam trap
DA0-002 often tests the misconception that generic data-quality issues like redundancy or unauthorized access are external-acquisition challenges, when the exam expects licensing, rate limiting, and format inconsistency.
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
✓
Licensing restrictions
Licensing restrictions (C) are a genuine external-data acquisition challenge because third-party providers impose contractual terms, usage caps, and redistribution limits that can legally block or constrain how the data is ingested and reused. Rate limiting (D) is correct because external APIs and feeds typically enforce request quotas (e.g., HTTP 429 responses, tokens per minute), forcing throttling, retries, or batching that complicate acquisition. Data format inconsistency (E) is correct because external sources deliver data in heterogeneous schemas and encodings (JSON, XML, CSV, proprietary formats, differing date/number conventions), requiring parsing and normalization before use. Data redundancy (A) is an internal data-quality issue about duplicate records rather than an external acquisition obstacle, and unauthorized access (B) is a security concern affecting data protection, not a challenge inherent to acquiring data from outside sources.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Data redundancy
Why it's wrong here
Redundancy arises from internal storage and integration design, not from the external acquisition process itself. It is tempting because duplicated records genuinely complicate later cleansing and warehouse loading, so it feels data-related; however, the stem asks about external-source acquisition challenges, where format inconsistency, access restrictions and licensing terms apply.
- ✗
Unauthorized access
Why it's wrong here
Unauthorised access concerns protecting data you already hold, not the difficulty of obtaining it from external providers. It is tempting because external sharing raises genuine security worries, and access control is a real data-governance topic; yet the acquisition challenges are availability, format, cost and contractual restrictions imposed by the source.
- ✓
Licensing restrictions
Why this is correct
External datasets arrive under vendor or public licences governing permitted use, redistribution and derivative works. These contractual terms constrain whether the data can legally be ingested and stored, making licensing restrictions a genuine acquisition challenge rather than a technical processing concern.
- ✓
Rate limiting
Why this is correct
External APIs and providers cap request volume per interval, so acquisition pipelines must throttle, batch or back off to avoid rejected calls. This throughput ceiling directly limits how quickly data can be collected, making rate limiting a structural constraint of sourcing data outside the organisation.
- ✓
Data format inconsistency
Why this is correct
Third parties supply data in differing schemas, encodings and delimiters, so records cannot be loaded uniformly without transformation. Reconciling these structural differences adds parsing and mapping effort during ingestion, making format inconsistency a core acquisition challenge for external sources.
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
This DA0-002 question is part of Courseiva's 1,004-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed September 2026 · checked against the official CompTIA exam blueprint
This DA0-002 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA 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 DA0-002 exam.