CLF-C02 Cloud Technology and Services Practice Question
A company archives compliance records that must be retained for 7 years but will almost never be accessed. They need the absolute lowest storage cost with retrieval times of several hours being acceptable. Which S3 storage class should they use?
⚠ Common exam trap
Watch out — candidates often confuse 'Glacier Flexible Retrieval' with the lowest-cost option, but the question explicitly states 'absolute lowest storage cost' and 'retrieval times of several hours being acceptable,' which points to Glacier Deep Archive as the correct choice due to its significantly lower storage price.
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 Glacier Deep Archive
S3 Glacier Deep Archive is designed for long-term retention of data that is accessed rarely, with retrieval times of 12 hours or more, making it the lowest-cost S3 storage class. For compliance records that must be retained for 7 years and almost never accessed, with acceptable retrieval times of several hours, this class provides the absolute minimum storage cost while meeting the retrieval time requirement.
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 Glacier Instant Retrieval
Why it's wrong here
Glacier Instant Retrieval is built for long-lived archive data that needs millisecond access a few times a year, so its per-GB storage price is far higher than Deep Archive. Since a 7-year compliance archive is rarely read and has no low-latency requirement, paying for instant retrieval would significantly inflate cost without business benefit. It also lacks the lower-tier economics of Deep Archive, making it an over-provisioned choice for this scenario.
- ✗
S3 Standard-IA
Why it's wrong here
Standard-IA is designed for infrequently accessed data that must be retrieved in milliseconds, so it carries higher per-GB storage costs than the Glacier tiers and assesses per-GB retrieval fees whenever objects are read. While its 30-day minimum billing period is easily satisfied by a 7-year archive, the total cost of storing and eventually retrieving that data still exceeds Deep Archive pricing. Because compliance archives need only rare, non-urgent access, Standard-IA's low-latency performance is wasted and its economics are suboptimal.
- ✗
S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval
Why it's wrong here
Glacier Flexible Retrieval offers expedited (1–5 minute) or standard (3–5 hour) retrieval options, which are useful for archives that occasionally need timely access, but its storage price is significantly higher than Deep Archive. A compliance archive that must be kept for seven years and accessed rarely does not require sub-hour retrieval, so choosing Flexible Retrieval would spend extra money on speed that is never used. Deep Archive's 12–48 hour retrieval window fully satisfies the requirement at a lower storage cost.
- ✓
S3 Glacier Deep Archive
Why this is correct
S3 Glacier Deep Archive is the lowest-cost S3 storage class, designed specifically for rarely accessed, long-term retention with retrieval times of 12–48 hours. For a 7-year compliance archive that is accessed only in exceptional circumstances, that retrieval latency is perfectly acceptable, while the substantial savings in storage cost make it the most cost-effective option. It also supports the same object-level features as other S3 classes, ensuring the compliance data remains manageable within the overall S3 ecosystem.
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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Related to this question
About these practice questions
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on CLF-C02
These questions test the same concept from different angles. Work through them to make sure you can recognise it however the exam phrases it.
Variation 1. Which AWS storage class is optimized for long-term archival where data is rarely accessed and retrieval time of several hours is acceptable?
medium- A.S3 Standard-IA
- B.S3 One Zone-IA
- ✓ C.S3 Glacier Deep Archive
- D.S3 Intelligent-Tiering
Why C: S3 Glacier Deep Archive is designed for long-term archival of data that is accessed rarely, with retrieval times ranging from 12 to 48 hours. This makes it the most cost-effective storage class for scenarios where retrieval latency of several hours is acceptable, such as compliance or regulatory archives.
JA
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.