AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03)Design High-Performing ArchitecturesMedium

A data engineering team is building a pipeline to ingest continuously flowing clickstream data from a high-traffic website. The data needs to be processed in real-time for analytics dashboards and then stored in Amazon S3 for long-term archival. The solution must handle fluctuating data volumes, ensure data durability, and minimize operational overhead. Which AWS service should be used for ingesting and processing this stream data?

  1. AAWS Step Functions
  2. BAmazon Kinesis Data Streams
  3. CAmazon SQS
  4. DAmazon EventBridge
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B. Amazon Kinesis Data Streams

Amazon Kinesis Data Streams is designed for real-time processing of large streams of data. It can continuously capture gigabytes of data per second from thousands of sources, making it ideal for high-throughput clickstream data. It integrates well with other AWS services for processing and storage, meeting the requirements for real-time analytics and archival.

Why the other options are wrong

  • A. AWS Step Functions is a serverless workflow service for orchestrating distributed applications, not for ingesting raw data streams.
  • C. Amazon SQS is a message queuing service, primarily for decoupling microservices, not optimized for real-time processing of continuous, high-volume data streams like clickstreams.
  • D. Amazon EventBridge is a serverless event bus that connects application components, primarily for routing events, not for ingesting continuous, high-volume data streams directly.

Amazon Kinesis Data Streams

A real-time data streaming service that can continuously capture and store gigabytes of data per second from thousands of sources.

  • Designed for high-throughput data streams.
  • Enables real-time analytics.
  • Integrates with other AWS services for processing and storage.

Memory trick: Kinesis streams for flowing data, real-time insights.

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