A company archives historical transaction records in Amazon S3. The records are accessed frequently for the first 30 days after creation. After 30 days, access drops sharply to only a few times per year, but the company must be able to retrieve any record within 5 minutes if needed. The company wants to minimize storage costs while meeting the retrieval time requirement. Which combination of S3 storage classes should the company use?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Good practice is not just finding the correct option. The wrong answers often show the exact trap the exam wants you to fall into.
Distractor review
Use S3 Standard for all data.
S3 Standard is designed for frequently accessed data and has a higher storage cost. Using it for data that is rarely accessed after 30 days would not minimize storage costs, so this is not optimal.
Best answer
Use S3 Standard for the first 30 days, then transition to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval.
S3 Standard provides low-latency access for the initial frequent access period. After 30 days, transitioning to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval reduces storage costs significantly. Although standard retrieval from S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval takes hours, the company can use expedited retrieval (available as an optional feature) to meet the 5-minute requirement when needed, at an additional cost.
Distractor review
Use S3 Standard-IA for the first 30 days, then transition to S3 Glacier Deep Archive.
S3 Standard-IA is optimized for infrequently accessed data but still has a per-retrieval fee. While the transition to S3 Glacier Deep Archive offers very low storage cost, its retrieval time is typically 12 hours or more, which does not meet the 5-minute requirement.
Distractor review
Use S3 One Zone-IA for the first 30 days, then transition to S3 Glacier Deep Archive.
S3 One Zone-IA stores data in a single Availability Zone, which poses a risk of data loss if that zone fails. Additionally, S3 Glacier Deep Archive's retrieval time exceeds 5 minutes, making this combination unsuitable for the stated requirements.
Common exam trap
Common exam trap: NAT rules depend on direction and matching traffic
NAT is not only about the public address. The inside/outside interface roles and the ACL or rule that matches traffic are just as important.
Technical deep dive
How to think about this question
NAT questions usually test address translation, overload/PAT behaviour, static mappings and whether the right traffic is being translated. Read the interface direction and address terms carefully.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
- PAT allows many inside hosts to share one public address using ports.
- Inside local and inside global describe the private and translated addresses.
- NAT ACLs identify traffic for translation, not always security filtering.
TExam Day Tips
- Identify inside and outside interfaces first.
- Check whether the scenario needs static NAT, dynamic NAT or PAT.
- Do not confuse NAT matching ACLs with normal packet-filtering intent.
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More questions from this exam
Keep practising from the same exam bank, or move into a focused topic page if this question exposed a weak area.
Question 1
A developer needs to launch a test server for a new application prototype. The developer logs into the AWS Management Console, selects an Amazon EC2 instance type, configures the security group, and starts the instance. The instance is running within two minutes, and the developer did not need to submit a formal request to the company's IT procurement team or wait for approval from a cloud administrator. Which essential characteristic of cloud computing does this scenario best demonstrate?
Question 2
A solutions architect is planning a new web application on AWS. The workload will include 3 Amazon EC2 instances (t3.medium) running 24/7, an Application Load Balancer, and an Amazon RDS for MySQL db.t3.small database. The architect needs to estimate the monthly cost for the first year, considering different purchasing options (On-Demand, 1-year All Upfront Reserved Instance, and Compute Savings Plan). Which AWS tool should the architect use to create this estimate?
Question 3
A company's development team frequently needs temporary test environments. A developer can log into the AWS Management Console, select an Amazon EC2 instance type, configure storage, and launch the instance within minutes without any interaction with the IT infrastructure team. This capability is an example of which essential characteristic of cloud computing?
Question 4
A company's finance team needs to analyze AWS spending in detail. They require a report that includes hourly cost data for each AWS service, each individual resource (e.g., a specific EC2 instance), and any cost allocation tags applied. The team plans to export this data to an Amazon S3 bucket and then import it into a custom business intelligence (BI) analytics dashboard. Which AWS tool should the finance team use to generate this level of detailed cost data?
Question 5
A company uses AWS for its development environment. The finance team wants to set a monthly budget of $10,000. They want to receive an email notification when the actual costs reach 80% of the budget ($8,000) and again when costs exceed the budget. The team needs a managed AWS service that can automatically send these alerts without requiring custom code or third-party tools. Which AWS service should the team use?
Question 6
A company uses AWS Organizations to manage multiple accounts. The security team needs to enforce a policy that restricts SSH access (port 22) from the internet (0.0.0.0/0) in all VPCs across all accounts. The team wants to centrally define the allowed rules and automatically apply them to newly created VPCs and security groups, while also automatically remediating any existing non-compliant security groups. Which AWS service should the team use?
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this CLF-C02 question test?
Static NAT maps one inside address to one outside address.
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Use S3 Standard for the first 30 days, then transition to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval. — The question asks for a cost-optimized storage solution that balances frequent initial access with infrequent long-term retention, while maintaining a 5-minute retrieval time. S3 Standard is suitable for frequent access but is too expensive for long-term storage of rarely accessed data. S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval offers configurable retrieval options—including expedited retrieval (1–5 minutes at extra cost) and standard retrieval (3–5 hours)—allowing the company to meet the 5-minute retrieval requirement when needed by paying for expedited retrieval. Transitioning from S3 Standard to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after 30 days provides significant storage cost savings while retaining the ability to retrieve data within the required time. S3 Standard-IA and S3 One Zone-IA are lower-cost options for infrequently accessed data but are not archival classes and may not minimize long-term storage costs as effectively. S3 Glacier Deep Archive has a retrieval time of 12 hours or more, which does not meet the 5-minute requirement.
What should I do if I get this CLF-C02 question wrong?
Then try more questions from the same exam bank and focus on understanding why the wrong options are tempting.
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