DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question

Which TWO are benefits of using Amazon S3 Object Lock? (Choose TWO.)

⚠ Common exam trap

Candidates often confuse S3 Object Lock with S3 Versioning or S3 Lifecycle policies, mistakenly thinking Object Lock handles encryption or storage tier transitions, when in reality it is solely focused on preventing object deletion or overwrite for compliance-driven WORM scenarios.

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

✓

Helps meet regulatory requirements for write-once-read-many (WORM) storage.

Amazon S3 Object Lock helps meet regulatory requirements for write-once-read-many (WORM) storage by allowing you to set retention periods and legal holds on objects. This ensures that data cannot be deleted or overwritten for a specified duration, which is a common requirement for compliance frameworks such as SEC Rule 17a-4 or FINRA.

Answer analysis

Option-by-option breakdown

For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.

✓
Helps meet regulatory requirements for write-once-read-many (WORM) storage.
Why this is correct
Object Lock provides WORM semantics, meaning objects written once cannot be altered or removed during retention. This directly satisfies the stem's regulatory compliance benefit, since auditors accept S3 Object Lock as evidence of tamper-proof, immutable record retention.
✗
Encrypts objects at rest using AWS KMS.
Why it's wrong here
Object Lock governs retention and legal hold; encryption at rest is delivered separately through SSE-KMS or SSE-S3. The option tempts because KMS encryption is a real S3 security control, and would be the right answer to a question asking how objects are protected against unauthorised reading.
✓
Prevents objects from being deleted or overwritten for a fixed time.
Why this is correct
Object Lock enforces retention by attaching a retain-until date or legal hold to object versions, so delete or overwrite requests are rejected until that period expires. This satisfies the stem's benefit of immutability for a fixed time.
✗
Automatically transitions objects to lower-cost storage classes.
Why it's wrong here
Object Lock applies retention and legal-hold controls that prevent deletion or overwrite; it never moves data between storage classes. Lifecycle policies perform that transition, so the option is tempting because tiering is a genuine S3 cost benefit, just unrelated to immutability.
✗
Enables automatic versioning of objects.
Why it's wrong here
Object Lock requires versioning to be enabled beforehand; it does not switch versioning on itself. The option tempts because versioning is genuinely a prerequisite for retention, and would be correct for a question asking what must already be configured before Object Lock can be applied.

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

DEA-C01 Data Store Management Practice Question

Why each option matters

Option-by-option breakdown

AWS S3 Storage Class Comparison

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