PDE Ingesting and Processing the Data Practice Question
A data engineer needs to load 10 TB of CSV files from Amazon S3 into Google BigQuery on a daily basis. Which service should they use 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
Storage Transfer Service can transfer data from Amazon S3 to Google Cloud Storage, but it does not load directly into BigQuery. BigQuery Data Transfer Service can import from Amazon S3 directly into BigQuery tables. Other options are not suitable: Cloud Data Fusion is for ETL pipelines, not simple transfer; Transfer Appliance is for offline petabyte-scale transfers; Dataproc is for Spark/Hadoop jobs.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Dataproc
Why it's wrong here
Dataproc is for running Spark/Hadoop jobs; not designed for simple file transfers.
- ✗
Cloud Data Fusion
Why it's wrong here
Cloud Data Fusion is a managed ETL/ELT service, but it is overkill and not the simplest solution for a straightforward S3-to-BigQuery transfer.
- ✓
BigQuery Data Transfer Service
Why this is correct
BigQuery Data Transfer Service supports scheduled transfers from Amazon S3 directly into BigQuery.
- ✗
Storage Transfer Service
Why it's wrong here
Storage Transfer Service transfers data to Cloud Storage, not directly to BigQuery. Additional steps are needed.
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 |
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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.