Configuring S3 Lifecycle Policy for Logs with Compliance Retention
A company stores its application logs in an Amazon S3 bucket. The logs are accessed frequently for the first 30 days, after which they are rarely accessed but must be retained for 7 years for compliance. The company wants to optimize storage costs while maintaining immediate retrieval availability for the first 30 days and the ability to retrieve logs within 12 hours after that. Which lifecycle policy should the data engineer configure?
Quick Answer
The correct answer is to transition objects to S3 Standard-IA after 30 days and then to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 1 year. This lifecycle policy optimizes storage costs while meeting the compliance retention requirement of 7 years because S3 Standard-IA provides immediate retrieval for the first 30 days of frequent access, and S3 Glacier Deep Archive offers the lowest-cost long-term storage with retrieval within 12 hours, satisfying the rare-access retrieval window. On the AWS Certified Data Engineer Associate DEA-C01 exam, this scenario tests your understanding of balancing cost, durability, and retrieval speed across S3 storage classes, often appearing as a trap where candidates mistakenly choose S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval (which has slower retrieval times) or S3 One Zone-IA (which lacks the durability needed for compliance logs). A key memory tip is "30 days Standard-IA, then Deep Archive for the long haul"—remember that Deep Archive is the only class guaranteeing retrieval within 12 hours at the lowest cost for 7-year retention.
⚠ Common exam trap
The DEA-C01 exam often tests the misconception that S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval is the cheapest option for long-term archival, but S3 Glacier Deep Archive is significantly cheaper for data that is rarely accessed and can tolerate a 12-hour retrieval time.
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
✓
Transition objects to S3 Standard-IA after 30 days and then to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 1 year.
It uses S3 Standard-IA for the first 30 days (frequent access, immediate retrieval) and then transitions to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 1 year, which provides retrieval within 12 hours at the lowest cost for long-term retention. This meets the compliance requirement of 7-year retention while optimizing costs by moving data to progressively cheaper storage classes based on access patterns.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Delete objects after 30 days to minimize storage costs.
Why it's wrong here
Deleting after 30 days violates the 7-year retention requirement.
- ✓
Transition objects to S3 Standard-IA after 30 days and then to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 1 year.
Why this is correct
Standard-IA provides immediate retrieval for the first 30 days, then Deep Archive for cost-effective long-term retention.
- ✗
Transition objects to S3 One Zone-IA after 30 days and delete after 7 years.
Why it's wrong here
One Zone-IA does not provide the durability required for compliance data.
- ✗
Transition objects to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after 30 days and delete after 7 years.
Why it's wrong here
Glacier Flexible Retrieval is more expensive than Deep Archive and retrieval times are longer than needed.
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 |
Go deeper
Related to this question
About these practice questions
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Same concept, more angles
1 more way this is tested on DEA-C01
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. A data engineer is designing a data lake on Amazon S3. The data is accessed frequently for the first 30 days, then rarely after that. The engineer needs to minimize storage costs while ensuring data is available within minutes for the first 30 days and can be retrieved within 12 hours after that. Which lifecycle policy should be applied?
medium- A.Transition to S3 One Zone-IA after 30 days.
- B.Transition to S3 Standard-IA after 30 days.
- ✓ C.Transition to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 30 days.
- D.Transition to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval after 30 days.
Why C: S3 Glacier Deep Archive offers the lowest storage cost for data that is rarely accessed after 30 days, and its retrieval time (within 12 hours) matches the requirement. The lifecycle policy transitions objects from S3 Standard (or S3 Intelligent-Tiering) to S3 Glacier Deep Archive after 30 days, minimizing costs while meeting the 12-hour retrieval window.
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This DEA-C01 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 DEA-C01 exam.