AWS Service for SQL Queries on Amazon S3

CLF-C02 By islever Editorial Last updated

Identify AWS artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) services and analytics services.

Short answer

B Use Amazon Athena to perform direct SQL queries on data stored in Amazon S3.

Question

A company needs to use SQL syntax to perform a direct query of objects in an Amazon S3 bucket. Which AWS service can the company use to meet this requirement?
  1. AWS Glue
  2. Amazon Athena Correct Answer
  3. AWS Lambda
  4. Amazon Kinesis

Key Takeaways

This question tests knowledge of AWS analytics services, specifically identifying the tool designed for ad-hoc SQL queries directly against S3 objects.

Amazon Athena is the serverless interactive query service that enables direct SQL analysis of data stored in Amazon S3 without requiring infrastructure management.

Common mistake: Learners often confuse Amazon Athena with AWS Glue, but Glue is primarily an ETL and data cataloging service, whereas Athena is the query engine.

Expert Analysis

Why the Answer Is Correct

Amazon Athena is a serverless, interactive query service that makes it easy to analyze data directly in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) using standard SQL. You do not need to install or manage any infrastructure; you simply point Athena at your data in S3, and it executes the queries and returns results in seconds.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

AWS Glue is a fully managed extract, transform, and load (ETL) service used to prepare and load data for analytics, not primarily for direct ad-hoc querying. Amazon Lambda is a compute service for running code in response to events, lacking built-in SQL query capabilities for S3. Amazon Kinesis is used for real-time data streaming and processing, not for historical SQL queries on static S3 objects.

Community Comment Notes

The community consensus strongly supports option B, with multiple users confirming that Athena is the correct choice because it allows for standard SQL queries on S3 data. As one user noted, "Athena is for SQL queries," highlighting its core function as an interactive query service.

Exam Strategy

When asked about querying data directly in S3 using SQL, immediately think of Amazon Athena. Distinguish it from Glue by remembering that Glue handles ETL and catalogs, while Athena handles the actual querying interface.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is AWS Glue incorrect for direct SQL queries?

AWS Glue is an ETL service focused on extracting, transforming, and loading data, and creating a Data Catalog. It does not provide a direct interface for ad-hoc SQL querying like Athena does.

Can I use Amazon Redshift for this requirement?

While Redshift Spectrum allows querying S3 data, it requires managing a Redshift cluster. Athena is serverless and better fits the 'direct query' requirement without infrastructure overhead.

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Community Votes

B
100%

100% of anonymous learners picked answer B. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.

Discussion 4 contributions

Compiled from public community threads and reader submissions, lightly edited for clarity. Handles and vote tallies are shown as recorded, and comments reflect the views of individual contributors.

From public community threads 4

  1. Meow7 👍 2
    B is correct Please help with discussion on 551~562. Thanks.
  2. Nethach 👍 2 Answered B
    B is correct Amazon Athena is for SQL queries
  3. its_tima 👍 1
    >B. Amazon Athena is an interactive query service that makes it easy to analyze data directly in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) using standard SQL. With a few actions in the AWS Management Console, you can point Athena at your data stored in Amazon S3 and begin using standard SQL to run ad-hoc queries and get results in seconds.
  4. ShaiTay 👍 1 Answered B
    B. Amazon Athena - serverless interactive query service that allows you to use standard SQL to query data stored in Amazon S3.

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