DEA-C01 practice question: SQL analysis and visualization (2 of 2)
Data Operations and Support A free question from our original DEA-C01 practice exam. Try it, then open the answer to see why each option is right or wrong.
A hospital group's finance dashboard in Amazon Quick Sight (formerly Amazon QuickSight) is used by about 500 managers. The data comes from an Amazon Redshift cluster, and the cluster's query queue is already busy during the morning reporting peak. Managers accept data that is up to two hours old.
The team wants fast dashboard loads and a steady load on the Redshift cluster, and it wants a predictable refresh schedule.
Which approach meets these requirements?
Choose one answer.
AA. Import the dataset into SPICE and schedule a refresh every two hours, so dashboards read the in-memory copy.
BB. Keep the dashboard on direct query, so that every manager's click runs a new query against the Redshift cluster.
CC. Export the dataset to CSV every morning, and load the CSV file into QuickSight by hand before the managers arrive.
DD. Give each manager their own Redshift user, so that the cluster can allocate queue slots to each manager fairly.
Show the answer and explanation
Answer: A
A. Right: Correct. SPICE is Quick Sight's in-memory engine, so managers' interactions do not query Redshift. A refresh scheduled every two hours matches the freshness the managers accept and puts a predictable load on the cluster. Learn more: Importing data into SPICE (opens in a new tab)
B. Wrong: Direct query sends every interaction to the warehouse, which adds load during the morning peak that the team wants to avoid. Response times also depend on the cluster's queue.
C. Wrong: Manual exports are error-prone and depend on a person being available each morning. The option does not give a scheduled, predictable refresh.
D. Wrong: More users increase the number of concurrent queries against the cluster, which worsens the morning peak. The option does not reduce the load.
Explanation
SPICE keeps a copy of the dataset in Quick Sight, so dashboards respond quickly and do not send each click to the warehouse. A scheduled refresh every two hours matches the managers' tolerance and moves the warehouse load to a fixed time. Direct query, manual imports and more users all keep the load on the busy cluster.
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