- A
Amazon S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access
Why wrong: Not resilient to AZ failures, not suitable for long-term compliance.
- B
Amazon S3 Standard
Why wrong: Higher cost for infrequent access and long-term storage.
- C
Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering
Why wrong: Optimizes cost but has monitoring fees and may not be cheapest for archival.
- D
Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive
Lowest cost for long-term archival with retrieval within 12 hours (standard) or minutes (expedited at extra cost).
Question 786 of 1,786
S3 Glacier Deep Archive for Archival JSON: 7-Year Compliance
This DEA-C01 practice question tests your understanding of data store management. Read the scenario carefully and evaluate each option against the stated constraints before committing to an answer. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
A data engineer needs to store semi-structured JSON data that is accessed infrequently but must be retrievable within minutes when needed. The data will be stored for 7 years for compliance. Which storage solution is MOST cost-effective?
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
✓
Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive
Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive is the most cost-effective storage class for data that is accessed infrequently, requires retrieval within minutes (using expedited retrieval), and must be stored for 7 years for compliance. It offers the lowest storage cost among S3 classes, making it ideal for long-term archival of semi-structured JSON data with minimal access needs.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Amazon S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access
Why it's wrong here
Not resilient to AZ failures, not suitable for long-term compliance.
- ✗
Amazon S3 Standard
Why it's wrong here
Higher cost for infrequent access and long-term storage.
- ✗
Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering
Why it's wrong here
Optimizes cost but has monitoring fees and may not be cheapest for archival.
- ✓
Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive
Why this is correct
Lowest cost for long-term archival with retrieval within 12 hours (standard) or minutes (expedited at extra cost).
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse 'infrequent access' with 'One Zone-Infrequent Access' or 'Standard-IA,' overlooking that Glacier Deep Archive is specifically designed for archival compliance data with retrieval times that can be expedited to minutes, not hours.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
S3 Glacier Deep Archive uses a 180-day minimum storage duration and a 12-hour standard retrieval time, but expedited retrievals can return data within 1–5 minutes for objects up to 250 MB, meeting the 'within minutes' requirement. The storage cost is approximately $0.00099 per GB/month, which is about 1/10th the cost of S3 Standard, and it provides 99.999999999% durability across multiple Availability Zones. For compliance data stored for 7 years, the total cost savings compared to S3 Standard can exceed 90%, making it the clear choice despite the retrieval fee.
KKey Concepts to Remember
- Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
- Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
- Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
- Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
- Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
A startup's cloud architect reviews their monthly bill and notices costs are higher than expected for a long-running batch job. Switching from on-demand instances to Reserved Instances — or using Spot/Preemptible VMs — can reduce compute costs by up to 72 %. Questions like this test whether you understand the tradeoffs between commitment, flexibility, and cost across cloud pricing models.
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 |
What to study next
Got this wrong? Here's your next step.
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
- →
Data Store Management — study guide chapter
Learn the concepts, then practise the questions
- →
Data Store Management practice questions
Targeted practice on this topic area only
- →
All DEA-C01 questions
1,786 questions across all exam domains
- →
AWS Certified Data Engineer Associate DEA-C01 study guide
Full concept coverage aligned to exam objectives
- →
DEA-C01 practice test guide
How to use practice tests most effectively before exam day
Related practice questions
Related DEA-C01 practice-question pages
Use these pages to review the topic behind this question. This is how one missed question becomes focused revision.
Data Ingestion and Transformation practice questions
Practise DEA-C01 questions linked to Data Ingestion and Transformation.
Data Operations and Support practice questions
Practise DEA-C01 questions linked to Data Operations and Support.
Data Security and Governance practice questions
Practise DEA-C01 questions linked to Data Security and Governance.
Data Store Management practice questions
Practise DEA-C01 questions linked to Data Store Management.
DEA-C01 fundamentals practice questions
Practise DEA-C01 questions linked to DEA-C01 fundamentals.
DEA-C01 scenario practice questions
Practise DEA-C01 questions linked to DEA-C01 scenario.
DEA-C01 troubleshooting practice questions
Practise DEA-C01 questions linked to DEA-C01 troubleshooting.
Practice this exam
Start a free DEA-C01 practice session
Short sessions build daily habit. Longer sessions build exam-day stamina. Try a timed session to simulate real conditions.
FAQ
Questions learners often ask
What does this DEA-C01 question test?
Data Store Management — This question tests Data Store Management — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive — Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive is the most cost-effective storage class for data that is accessed infrequently, requires retrieval within minutes (using expedited retrieval), and must be stored for 7 years for compliance. It offers the lowest storage cost among S3 classes, making it ideal for long-term archival of semi-structured JSON data with minimal access needs.
What should I do if I get this DEA-C01 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
About these practice questions
Courseiva creates original exam-style practice questions with explanations and wrong-answer analysis. It does not publish real exam questions, exam dumps, or protected exam content. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
Keep practising
More DEA-C01 practice questions
- A data pipeline uses Kinesis Data Firehose to deliver streaming data to an S3 bucket. The data volume spikes occasionall…
- An e-commerce company uses AWS Glue to run ETL jobs that transform clickstream data from Amazon S3. The job reads Parque…
- A data engineering team uses Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics for Apache Flink to process streaming data. They notice that…
- A company uses AWS Glue to process streaming data from Amazon Kinesis Data Streams. The job reads JSON records and write…
- A data engineer applies the above bucket policy to an S3 bucket containing sensitive data. The goal is to allow only enc…
- A company uses AWS Glue to catalog data in Amazon S3. The security team requires that all sensitive data be identified a…
Last reviewed: Jul 4, 2026
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.
Question Discussion
Share a tip, memory trick, or ask about the reasoning behind this question. Do not post real exam questions, leaked content, braindumps, or copyrighted exam material. Comments are moderated and may be removed without notice.
Sign in to join the discussion.