PDE Ingesting and Processing the Data Practice Question
A data engineer needs to load 10 GB of CSV files from Amazon S3 into BigQuery on a daily basis. The files arrive in a specific S3 bucket at 3 AM UTC each day. Which service should be used to automate this transfer?
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
✓
BigQuery Data Transfer Service
BigQuery Data Transfer Service supports scheduled transfers from Amazon S3 directly to BigQuery, making it the appropriate choice for this recurring batch load.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Cloud Storage Transfer Service
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Storage Transfer Service is designed for scheduled or one-off transfers of data into Cloud Storage from sources like Amazon S3, or between Cloud Storage buckets. It fails here because the requirement is to load data directly from S3 into BigQuery, not via Cloud Storage as an intermediary. This service would be the correct choice if the objective were to migrate or regularly synchronise data from Amazon S3 to Google Cloud Storage.
- ✗
Dataflow with Pub/Sub
Why it's wrong here
This is a streaming solution, not suited for simple daily batch loads.
- ✗
Transfer Appliance
Why it's wrong here
Transfer Appliance is for offline petabyte-scale transfers, not for daily automated loads.
- ✓
BigQuery Data Transfer Service
Why this is correct
BigQuery Data Transfer Service can schedule and automate data loads from Amazon S3 directly into BigQuery.
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 |
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
One of 890 original PDE practice questions on Courseiva, each with a full explanation and wrong-answer analysis — not exam dumps or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PDE practice question is part of Courseiva's free Google Cloud 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 PDE exam.