CLF-C02 Cloud Technology and Services Practice Question
Which Amazon S3 feature allows you to automatically delete objects after a specified number of days to reduce storage costs?
⚠ Common exam trap
Test-takers frequently confuse S3 Lifecycle policies with S3 Versioning, mistakenly thinking versioning alone can delete old versions to save costs, but versioning actually retains all versions and requires a Lifecycle policy with noncurrent version expiration to remove them.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
S3 Lifecycle policies with expiration rules
S3 Lifecycle policies with expiration rules allow you to define rules that automatically delete objects after a specified number of days. This is a cost-optimization feature that helps reduce storage costs by removing data that is no longer needed, such as logs or temporary files, without manual intervention.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
S3 Versioning
Why it's wrong here
Enabling S3 Versioning preserves every version of an object, including overwrites and deletes, which can rapidly accumulate storage. Without a lifecycle rule to purge noncurrent versions, versioning actually increases your storage costs rather than reducing them. Therefore, versioning alone does not satisfy a need to automatically delete outdated data.
- ✓
S3 Lifecycle policies with expiration rules
Why this is correct
S3 Lifecycle policies with expiration rules let you define actions that transition objects to cheaper storage classes and permanently delete objects or their versions after a specified age. You can, for example, expire current versions after 180 days and remove noncurrent versions after 30 days, directly aligning storage spend with data retention requirements. This is the service-native mechanism for automated cost optimization through deletion.
- ✗
S3 Object Lock
Why it's wrong here
S3 Object Lock enforces a write-once-read-many (WORM) model that blocks object deletion for a selected compliance or governance retention period. Rather than helping you remove data to cut costs, it actively prevents deletion and extends storage duration. Using Object Lock would work against the goal of automatically reducing costs by expiring old objects.
- ✗
S3 Block Public Access
Why it's wrong here
S3 Block Public Access is a security control that overrides bucket policies and object permissions to prevent public access to S3 resources. It has no influence on object lifecycle, deletion, or storage cost management. Because the requirement is to automatically expire old data, this feature addresses a different dimension of S3 administration.
Quick reference
AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison
| Storage Class | Min Duration | Retrieval | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3 Standard | None | Immediate | Frequently accessed data |
| S3 Standard-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Infrequent access, rapid retrieval |
| S3 One Zone-IA | 30 days | Immediate | Non-critical infrequent data |
| S3 Intelligent-Tiering | None | Immediate–hours | Unknown or changing access patterns |
| S3 Glacier Instant | 90 days | Milliseconds | Archive with instant retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Flexible | 90 days | Minutes–hours | Archive, flexible retrieval |
| S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 180 days | Hours | Long-term compliance archive |
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This CLF-C02 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Amazon Web Services certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the CLF-C02 exam.