CLF-C02 Cloud Technology and Services Practice Question
A company stores compliance logs in Amazon S3. After 90 days, logs are never accessed again but must be retained for 7 years to meet regulatory requirements. Which S3 storage class provides the lowest storage cost for this long-term archival requirement?
⚠ Common exam trap
Many exam-takers choose S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval (Option C) because they see 'Glacier' and assume it is the cheapest archival option, but they overlook that Glacier Deep Archive is specifically designed for even lower-cost, longer-term archival with retrieval times of 12+ hours.
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
Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive is designed for long-term retention of data that is accessed extremely rarely, with a retrieval time of 12 hours or more. It offers the lowest storage cost among all S3 storage classes, making it the most cost-effective choice for compliance logs that must be retained for 7 years but are never accessed after 90 days.
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 Standard
Why it's wrong here
S3 Standard is a general-purpose storage class engineered for frequently accessed, latency-sensitive workloads, so it carries the highest per-gigabyte storage price among S3 classes. Because the data will sit untouched for 7 years, paying that premium monthly rate provides no real benefit and multiplies unnecessarily over the retention period. The redundant storage across multiple Availability Zones and low-latency access guarantees do not help a compliance artifact that will never be retrieved.
- ✗
S3 Standard-IA
Why it's wrong here
S3 Standard-IA lowers per-gigabyte storage cost below Standard, but it is still priced for infrequently accessed data that must be available instantly when requested, and it applies per-gigabyte retrieval fees whenever that data is eventually read. For a 7-year retention window with zero anticipated accesses, its monthly storage charge remains substantially higher than S3 Glacier Deep Archive, which is built specifically for long-term preservation. Additionally, retrieval latency of Standard-IA is milliseconds, while Deep Archive accepts hours-long retrieval because cost minimization is the priority.
- ✗
S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval
Why it's wrong here
S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval is for archival data with retrieval times of minutes to hours. It is cheaper than Standard-IA but more expensive than Deep Archive for long-term retention where cost is the primary concern.
- ✓
S3 Glacier Deep Archive
Why this is correct
S3 Glacier Deep Archive offers the lowest storage cost in Amazon S3, purpose-built for data retained for 7–10 years that is rarely or never retrieved. It meets the 7-year compliance requirement at the minimum cost.
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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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.