Most Cost-Effective Athena and QuickSight SPICE for S3 Clickstream?

Analyze data by using AWS services. Choose a data store.

Answer Correct answer: B, E — Use Athena to query the S3 clickstream data and QuickSight SPICE with a daily refresh for scalable, low-cost dashboards.

A marketing company collects clickstream data. The company sends the clickstream data to Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose and stores the clickstream data in Amazon S3. The company wants to build a series of dashboards that hundreds of users from multiple departments will use. The company will use Amazon QuickSight to develop the dashboards. The company wants a solution that can scale and provide daily updates about clickstream activity. Which combination of steps will meet these requirements MOST cost-effectively? (Choose two.)

Use Amazon Redshift to store and query the clickstream data.
Use Amazon Athena to query the clickstream data Correct Answer
Use Amazon S3 analytics to query the clickstream data.
Access the query data through a QuickSight direct SQL query.
Access the query data through QuickSight SPICE (Super-fast, Parallel, In-memory Calculation Engine). Configure a daily refresh for the dataset. Correct Answer

Community Votes

100%

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

Community Insight

This question tests cost-effective analytics over S3 data and QuickSight serving strategy; the trap is picking Redshift or direct SQL, which add cluster or repeated-query costs.

For clickstream data already in Amazon S3, Amazon Athena and Amazon QuickSight SPICE with a daily refresh deliver scalable dashboards for hundreds of users at low cost. This analysis confirms that the correct two-step combination is B and E, not Redshift or direct SQL.

Many learners choose Amazon Redshift (A) because it is a familiar analytics warehouse, or QuickSight direct SQL (D) because it avoids a refresh schedule, but both options increase cost for daily updates and hundreds of users compared with Athena plus SPICE.

Community Discussion (4 comments)

Ja13 👍 5 Selected: BE

B. Use Amazon Athena to query the clickstream data. E. Access the query data through QuickSight SPICE (Super-fast, Parallel, In-memory Calculation Engine). Configure a daily refresh for the dataset. Here's why: B. Use Amazon Athena to query the clickstream data: Amazon Athena allows you to run SQL queries directly on data stored in Amazon S3 without the need for complex ETL processes. It is a cost-effective solution for querying large datasets on S3. E. Access the query data through QuickSight SPICE: QuickSight SPICE is designed for fast, in-memory data analysis and can scale to support many users and large datasets. By configuring a daily refresh, you ensure that the dashboards are updated with the latest data while keeping query performance high and costs low.

HagarTheHorrible 👍 1 Selected: BE

both are more or less the only possible

GHill1982 👍 2 Selected: BE

Agree with B & E. Athena would be cheaper than Redshift. S3 analytics is irrelevant. The functionality in SPICE should be more cost effective than direct SQL by reducing the frequency and volume of queries.

tgv 👍 1 Selected: BE

Athena charges based on the amount of data scanned per query, which can be cost-effective for ad-hoc querying and periodic updates. SPICE can be more cost-effective for frequent access and analysis by multiple users as it reduces the load on the underlying data source.

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Expert Analysis

Why the Answer Is Correct

Amazon Athena is the right query layer because the clickstream data already resides in Amazon S3; Athena runs serverless SQL directly on S3 and charges only for data scanned, eliminating the need to load or manage a separate warehouse. This matches the "most cost-effectively" requirement for daily updates rather than continuous low-latency serving. QuickSight SPICE is the right dashboard layer because it imports the Athena result set into an in-memory engine, so hundreds of users from multiple departments can interact with dashboards without each click issuing a fresh Athena query. Configuring a daily refresh aligns SPICE with the required daily clickstream updates while keeping query volume predictable. Together, B and E scale to many users and keep both storage and query costs minimal.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

Amazon Redshift (A) can store and query clickstream data, but it requires provisioning and managing cluster capacity, which is not the most cost-effective choice when the data is already in S3 and only daily dashboard updates are needed. Amazon S3 analytics (C) is a storage-class analysis feature, not an interactive SQL query engine for QuickSight dashboards, so it cannot satisfy the dashboard requirement. QuickSight direct SQL query (D) would let QuickSight query Athena directly, but every dashboard interaction would scan S3 data and add latency and cost for hundreds of users, especially compared with SPICE caching. Therefore A, C, and D are distractors that either add unnecessary infrastructure or fail the functional need.

Community Comment Notes

Ja13 notes that "Amazon Athena allows you to run SQL queries directly on data stored in Amazon S3" and highlights avoiding complex ETL, which supports option B. GHill1982 agrees that "Athena would be cheaper than Redshift" and states that "S3 analytics is irrelevant," reinforcing the cost comparison. tgv adds that Athena charges by data scanned and that SPICE "reduces the load on the underlying data source" for frequent access by multiple users. HagarTheHorrible summarizes the consensus by saying B and E are "both are more or less the only possible" choices in this scenario.

Official Reference

Exam Strategy

In cost-optimization questions, match the query engine to where the data already lives instead of moving it. When hundreds of users need repeated dashboard access, cache the result set in SPICE rather than paying for every direct query.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is QuickSight direct SQL wrong for hundreds of users?

Direct SQL makes each dashboard interaction query Athena, scanning S3 data repeatedly and increasing cost and latency. SPICE caches the dataset once and serves users from memory with a daily refresh.

Why not use Amazon Redshift for this clickstream dashboard?

Redshift requires a provisioned cluster and ongoing management, which is not the most cost-effective option when the data already sits in S3. Athena queries S3 serverlessly and scales with daily updates.

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