DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question
A data engineer needs to store large amounts of data that is accessed infrequently but must be retrieved immediately when needed. Which Amazon S3 storage class is most cost-effective?
⚠ Common exam trap
The DEA-C01 exam often tests the misconception that S3 One Zone-IA is a cheaper alternative for infrequent access, but the trap is that it sacrifices durability by storing data in a single Availability Zone, which is not suitable for data that must be reliably retrieved immediately.
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 Standard-IA
S3 Standard-IA (Infrequent Access) is the most cost-effective choice because it offers low per-GB storage costs for data accessed infrequently, while still providing millisecond retrieval latency for immediate access when needed. This matches the requirement of storing large amounts of data that is rarely accessed but must be available instantly.
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 Intelligent-Tiering
Why it's wrong here
Intelligent-Tiering is cost-effective for unknown patterns but may incur monitoring costs.
- ✗
S3 One Zone-IA
Why it's wrong here
S3 One Zone-IA stores data in a single Availability Zone, so it fails the requirement for immediate retrieval because any zone outage would render the data inaccessible until the zone recovers, violating the "must be retrieved immediately when needed" condition. It is tempting because it offers lower storage costs than S3 Standard-IA for infrequently accessed data, and would be correct for non-critical, easily reproducible data where temporary unavailability is acceptable.
- ✓
S3 Standard-IA
Why this is correct
S3 Standard-IA is designed for infrequent access with millisecond retrieval.
- ✗
S3 Glacier Deep Archive
Why it's wrong here
Glacier Deep Archive has retrieval times of 12 hours.
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 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.